LIBRARY 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Mrs.  SARAH  P.  WALSWORTH. 

Received  October,.  1894. 
Accessions  No  .S*730  &......•      Class  No. 


EEY.  DR.  SCOTT'S  ¥ORKS. 
DANIEL : 

A  MODEL  FOE    YOUNG   MEN. 

Published  by  ROBERT  CARTER  &  BROTHERS,  New  York. 

THE  WEDGE  OF  GOLD; 

Or,  ACHAN  IN  EL  DORADO. 

Published  in  San  Francisco,  and  also  by  the  Presbyterian 
Board  in  Philadelphia. 

TRADE  AND  LETTERS : 

THEIR  JOURNEYINGS  ROUND  THE  WORLD. 

Delivered  before,  and  published  at  the  request,  of  the  ''Mer 
cantile  Library  Association  of  San  Francisco."  New  York : 
CARTERS. 

THE  GIANT  JUDGE ; 

Or,  SAMSON  THE  HEBREW  HERCULES. 

Published  in  San  Francisco,  and  also  by  the  Presbyterian 
Board  in  Philadelphia. 


ESTHER ; 


THE  HEBREW-PERSIAN  QUEEN. 


BY  REV.  W.  A.  SCOTT,  D.  D. 


OF     SAN     FRANCISCO. 


"  THE  HISTORICAL  matters  of  Scripture  constitute  as  it  were  the  bones  of  its  system; 
and  its  spiritual  matters  are  its  muscles,  blood  vessels  and  nerves.  As  the  BONES  are 
necessary  to  the  human  system,  so  Scripture  must  have  its  historical  matters.  Those 
expositions  are  the  safest  which  keep  closest  to  the  text." — Bengd. 


II.     II.    J3  A  N  C  11  O  F  T     &      C  O. 

1859. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  in  the  year  of  our  Lord,  1859, 
BY  W.  A.  SCOTT, 

In  the  Clerk's  office  of  the  District  Court  of  the   United  States,  for  the 
Northern  District  of  California. 


O'MEARA  &  PAINTER,   PRINTERS. 


DEDICATION. 


MOTHERS  AND  DAUGHTERS  OF  THE  PACIFIC  : 

To  you  I  beg  leave  respectfully  to  dedicate  this  humble  attempt  to  explain 
and  illustrate  the  wonderful  history  of  the  orphan  Hebrew  maid  of  Shushan, 
who  became  Queen  of  Persia.  And  I  do  so  because  I  firmly  believe  the 
mightiest  human  power  on  earth,  for  good  and  for  evil,  is  lodged  in  woman's 
hand : — 

"  They  who  rock  the  cradle,  rule  the  world" 

And  I  also  believe  that  the  SACRED  SCRIPTURES  alone,  of  all  writings  an 
cient  or  modern,  have  fully  comprehended  and  rightly  understood  woman's 
mission,  and  truthfully  and  properly  represented  her  in  her  true  place.  As 
it  was  by  a  woman  our  race  fell,  so  it  is  by  woman  mankind  are  to  be  eleva 
ted  and  saved.  The  great  Saviour  of  the  world  was  born  of  a  woman,  and  one 
of  the  most  lovely  and  hopeful  sights  on  earth  is  a  woman  beneath  the  cross 
with  the  Word  of  God  in  her  hand,  learning  her  duty  and  acquiring  the 
graces  which  fit  her  for  her  high  mission  in  the  world. 

Woman's  calling  and  rights  are  much  talked  of  in  our  day,  but  I  am  fully 
persuaded  that  it  is  from  the  Bible,  and  not  from  new  platforms,  that  we  are 
to  learn  what  they  really  are ;  and  that  not  so  much  from  precepts,  as  from 
examples.  The  Bible  does  not  explain  whether  woman  is  equal  or  superior 
to  man — does  not  dogmatize  on  her  social  or  domestic  condition,  but  straight 
way  tells  us  how  she  was  created,  and  for  what  purpose,  and  then  illustrates 
her  mission  by  giving  brief  notices  of  how  a  few  remarkable  mothers  and 
wives  fulfilled  their  vocation,  from  the  days  of  the  patriarchs  to  the  apostles. 
This  is  true  "  philosophy  teaching  by  example." 

To  you,  therefore,  to  whom  Providence  has  chiefly  committed  the  great 
moral  power  of  moulding  into  shape  the  minds  and  manners,  and  conse 
quently  the  eternal  destinies  of  the  millions  that  are  soon  to  have  their 
home  on  this  coast,  is  this  volume  most  respectfully  dedicated. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER   I. 

PERSIA  PAST  AND  PRESENT. 

Interesting  and  important  nature  of  Oriental  literature — 
Persian  poets — Persia  always  coveted,  from  Alexan 
der's  day  to  the  present — His  policy  and  sagacity — 
Persian  manners  but  little  changed — Persian  scribes 
— Early  legends — Iran  and  Elam — The  Modes — Cyrus 
the  Great — Daniel's  prophecies — Susiana  of  our  day 
— Beauty  and  fertility  of  the  country — Musings 25 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE    MEGILLOTH    ESTHER. 

The  Megilloth  Esther  and  our  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence — Ahasuerus  and  Vashti — The  divorce — The 
new  queen — The  conspiracy  of  the  eunuchs — Ha- 
man's  plot  succeeds  with  the  king — Mordecai's  dis 
tress — Queen  Esther  interceding — Mordecai  honored 
— Haman's  fall — The  counter-decree — The  feast  of 
Purirn 41 

CHAPTER   III. 

THESE  HEBREW  RECORDS  CREDIBLE. 

The  Book  of  Esther  important  for  understanding  subse 
quent  history  of  the  Jews — Its  author,  and  credi 
bility — The  apocryphal  books — Our  sources  are  au 
thentic  —  Ancient  versions  —  Septuagint,  Vulgate, 
Targums,  Talmud,  Philo  and  Josephus — Contempo 
rary  Greek  writers — Inscriptions — Major  Rawlinson.  59 

lA 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   IV. 

POINTS    TO   BE    PROVEN. 

Esther  a  real  historic  personage — Whately's  "  historic 
doubts  " — Contradictory  statements  do  not  disprove 
personal  history — General  Jackson's  battle  of  New 
Orleans — Objections  not  conclusive — Dr.  Johnson's 
rule — Patriarchal  stories  —  Trust  in  Providence — 
God's  agents  are  everywhere — God's  plan  is  often 
contrary  to  our  expectations — The  still  small  voice — 
Sow  the  good  seed 69 

CHAPTER  V. 

SUSA   AND   HER   KING. 

The  period  of  our  history — Xerxes — Artaxerxes  Longima- 
nus  is  Ahasuerus — The  proofs — Extent  of  his  empire 
— Shushan  is  Susa — The  royal  city  described — Alex 
ander  at  Susa — The  ruins — Tomb  of  Daniel — Reflec 
tions 79 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE    FEAST   AND    THE    DIVORCE. 

Ancient  trade  and  luxury — The  king's  gardens — Persian 
pomp — Xerxes'  table — Dr.  Russell's  Aleppo — Occa 
sion  of  Ahasuerus'  feast — The  feast  itself — Its  splen 
dor  and  length — Women  in  the  East — The  king's 
call  for  the  queen — The  queen's  disobedience — King's 
anger — The  royal  divorce — Scriptural  rule — Law  of 
domestic  happiness,  is  love — "  Stoop  to  conquer" — 
Guard  against  all  excesses — Herod's  rash  oath — Hu 
man  vanity — What  our  gardens  should  be 93 

CHAPTER  VII. 

ESTHER    CHOSEN    QUEEN. 

The  weakness  of  the  man  of  "a  thousand  thrones" — The 
more  absolute  the  power,  the  more  need  of  good 
advice — The  prime  minister,  Memucan,  and  his  coun 
sel — The  filling  of  the  harem — Oriental  seraglios — 
Persian  kings — Catharine  of  Russia — Hadassah  in 
troduced — Her  name  changed  to  Esther — Knoller's 
bridal  procession — Esther's  people  not  known — The 
proper  view  of  the  case 113 


CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER   VIII. 

ESTHER    CROWNED     QUEEN. 

A  feast  for  the  crowning  as  well  as  for  the  divorcing  — 
The  Queen's  pin-money  —  Mordecai's  pious  hopes  — 
Esther's  rivals  —  The  conspiracy  against  the  king  — 
The  eunuchs  put  to  death  according  to  law  —  The  se 
clusion  of  the  Hareni  —  The  model  maid  —  Effects  of  a 
good  education  —  Esther's  trials  as  an  orphan  girl  — 
The  foundation  laid  for  Mordecai's  advancement  — 
Wait  hopefully  your  time  —  General  Havelock  —  God 
makes  all  his  agents  fulfill  their  place  —  Young  women 
may  all  gain  a  crown  —  Death  is  a  spice  bath  for 
glory  ...............................................  .'  .............. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE    JEW   AND   THE    AMALEKITE. 

The  Agagite  —  Mordecai's  refusal  to  worship  him  —  His 
firmness  justified  —  His  thoughts  —  The  remonstrance- 
of  his  fellow  servants  —  Danger  of  giving  advice  — 
How  Mordecai  came  to  have  such  a  character  —  The 
mother  moulds  the  man  —  The  place  of  our  Schools  — 
Christianity  does  not  destroy  civility  —  General  Jack 


CHAPTER   X. 

RAMAN'S  REVENGEFUL  PLOT. 

Hainan's  murderous  design  —  His  lying  but  plausible  ad 
dress  —  Excessive  degree  of  his  envy  and  scorn  —  A 
very  Nero  —  Demagogues  always  dangerous,  and  the 
worst  kind  ore  fanatics—  The  Priests—  Ten  thousand 
talents  —  Millionaires  in  olden  times  —  American  van 
ity  a  reproach  —  Officials  should  live  as  well  as  other 
people  —  The  murderous  decree  issued  —  Some  par 
allels  —  The  king  and  Haman  drinking,  but  the  city 
of  Shushan  perplexed  —  Danger  of  despotism  —  Des 
potism  of  a  mob  the  worst  of  all—  The  Vox  Populi  is 
not  always  the  Vox  Dei  —  The  value  of  our  laws  and 
institutions  —  Dr.  Thomas  Scott  on  Christian  obedi 
ence  to  the  laws  —  Must  never  despair  of  the  ark  — 
Persecution  a  part  of  a  good  man's  heritage  —  Long 
fellow's  grave  ...................................................  157 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER   XI. 

MORDECAI   IN    SACKCLOTH. 

What  makes  history — The  Ocean  Cable  not  a  failure — 
Esther's  personal  charms  a  means — The  Jews  wailing 
— Mordecai  in  the  streets  and  in  the  Synagogue — 
His  prayer — Reason  why  he  does  not  speak  to  the 
queen — Communications  with  the  queen — His  ur 
gency  upon  her  majesty — His  courage  and  faith — The 
queen's  heroic  resolve  1*79 

CHAPTER  XII. 

THE    QUEEN    INTERCEDING. 

The  maid  now  a  heroine — The  fasting  and  praying — The 
golden  sceptre — The  queen's  apartments  described — 
The  queen's  prayer — Prepares  for  the  interview — The 
king,  his  throne,  and  the  queen's  entrance — The  queen 
faints — The  king  leaps  from  his  throne — The  queen 
saved — Piety  in  high  life — and  even  under  disadvan 
tages — The  queen's  extraordinary  modesty  and  self- 
command — Our  lives  are  sometimes  called  for  in  the 
discharge  of  duty — Duty  is  always  ours — Efficacy  of 
prayer — Our  advantages  over  the  queen — The  design 
of  affliction — The  great  resolve  for  the  sinner 191 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    BANQUET   AND    THE    SLEEPLESS   KING. 

The  "  dejuner  sans  fourchettes"— Wine  banquets — The 
Queen's  petition — Trusting  and  Avorking — Examples 
— God's  restraint  over  wicked  men — Hainan's  glory 
and  riches — His  wife's  advice — Extraordinary  hight 
of  the  gallows — The  gallows — The  King  sleepless — 
The  chronicles — Antiquity  of  writing — Uses  of  his 
tory 211 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE     ROYAL     HONORING. 

Haman  early  this  morning  at  Court — Mordecai's  neglect 
turns  out  well — Hainan's  disappointment — Horses  in 
royal  processions  crowned — Forcshadowings — Ha- 
man's  wife — Pride  and  envy  make  us  wretched — We 


CONTENTS.  Xlll 

reap  as  we  sow — Danger  of  unwise  and  unfaithful 
counsellors — Bollingbroke's  rule — Wives  carry  the 
stars  of  their  husband's  fortunes  in  their  bosoms — 
Hainan's  misfortune  in  not  having  a  CHRISTIAN  HOME 
— "  The  Soldier's  Dream" — "  Home,  sweet  home  !" — 
Woman's  influence  223 


CHAPTER  XV. 
RAMAN'S  PALL  AND  DEATH. 

The  second  wine  banquet — Orientals  superstitious — "  The 
feast  of  death" — The  Queen's  request  for  her  life  and 
that  of  her  people — The  enemy  denounced — The 
King  leaves  the  feast  in  anger — Shah  Sefi — The  Ro 
man  custom — The  Queen's  eloquence — Hainan's  con 
fusion  and  doom — Vicissitudes  of  the  world — The 
first  risings  of  passion  to  be  restrained — Prosperity 
no  comfort  in  trouble — God's  favors  rightfully  dis 
tributed — Providence  a  long  chain — Real  and  appa 
rent  happiness  distinguished 239 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE    LAW   OF    RETRIBUTION. 

Harm  watch,  harm  catch — The  highth  of  th?  gallows — 
Retributive  Justice  seen  in  the  history  of  Samson — 
And  in  the  Jews — Conviction  of  duty  to  be  regard 
ed  —  Exceptions  only  prove  the  general  rule  — 
The  fire  unquenchable  is  within  the  soul — Inventors 
of  instruments  of  death  destroyed  by  them — The 
great  Remedy 255 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

THE    COUNTER-DECREE    ISSUED. 

Changes  in  the  palace  —  The  good  man  and  the  bad 
man's  heritage — The  queen's  intercession  for  her 
people — Knox's  prayers — The  Persian's  blasphemy — 
India  —  Ancient  modes  of  traveling — Khans — Cou 
riers — Posts — No  cruelty  practiced  by  the  Jews — 
Mordccai's  honors — The  three  robes,  black,  red  and 
white 268 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE    PICTURES    TO    BE    STUDIED. 

Newton  and  La  Place — Symmetry  of  God's  laws  and  word 
— Men  work  out  their  own  destinies — Cicero  on  gen 
eral  character — Benevolence — The  only  true  reformer 
is  the  Gospel — The  only  true  happiness  is  in  love  to 
God,  and  deeds  of  love  to  men — The  sun,  and  earth 
and  air,  are  ever  giving — Our  laws  wise  and  good, 
and  to  be  obeyed — Our  influence  immortal — Wrath 
must  fall  on  the  impenitent — The  GREAT  REMEDY 285 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE    DAY    OF    SLAUGHTER. 

The  contending  decrees — The  Jews  act  only  in  self- 
defence — Haman's  sons  killed  and  then  hanged — 
Reasons  why — Greatness  of  the  slaughter — Jews  did 
not  touch  the  spoil — Effects  of  the  slaughter — Self- 
denial  307 

CHAPTER  XX. 

THE    LIVING    MONUMENT. 

PURIM,  its  name  and  history — Lot-casting — Holinshead  at 
Agincourf— Horace  on  dice  and  "  the  governor  of  the 
feast" — Le  Clerc  refuted — Abraham's  God  in  the  lot 
— Observance  of  the  feast  of  Purim — Sobriety  of  Is 
raelites — The  demonstration — Our  Ebeneezers 315 

CHAPTER   XXI. 

FLOWERS    FROM    THE    TOMB. 

Lord  Bacon's  confidence  rightly  placed — Principles  bear 
ing  fruit — The  Bible  teaches  chiefly  by  examples — 
Even  great  men  desire  truth  in  a  simple  garb — Ben- 
gel — Mordecai's  greatness — Tomb  of  Ahasuerus  not 
known — The  Russian  empress — Grave  of  Calvin  not 
known — Tomb  of  Esther  and  Mordecai — Palace  of 
Shushan  identified — Jews  dispersed — An  argument 
— Earthly  glory  fades — Alexander  at  Cyrus'  tomb — 
The  Bible  to  be  relied  on — Mad.  Dacier's  test — Com 
mit  your  orphans  to  God — Take  care  of  the  father 
less — Benevolent  deeds  immortal — Parents,  teachers, 
nurses — The  army  of  women — Wellington — Confide 
in  your  parents — A  mother's  love 331 


INTRODUCTION. 


THERE  is  no  more  powerful  auxiliary  to  the  pulpit  than  the 
PRESS.  The  intellectual  and  moral  stimulus  of  editorship, 
instead  of  being  a  loss  to  a  pastor's  charge,  are  both  to  them 
and  to  the  world  preeminently  useful,  if  his  writings  are  suc 
cessful  in  advocating  the  truth.  I  see  not  how  a  pastor's  effi 
ciency  is  impaired  by  habits  of  close  study,  as  far  as  his  health 
and  pastoral  visitings  will  allow,  whether  his  studies  are  de 
voted  to  manuscripts  that  are  never  published  or  to  regular 
authorship.  For  even  if  he  does  not  publish,  the  habit  of 
study,  which  is  rarely  acquired  and  pursued  without  the  use 
of  the  pen,  is  a  very  great  blessing  to  his  hearers ;  and  if  he 
publish  the  results  of  his  study  in  an  acceptable  manner, 
then  his  influence  may  be  extended  from  a  thousand  to  fifty 
thousand,  and  instead  of  preaching  to  a  congregation  of  a  few 
hundred  members,  he  may  preach  to  a  whole  continent  for 
many  generations.  No  man,  however  great  his  genius,  has  a 
right  to  serve  the  Lord  in  the  sanctuary  with  unbeaten  oil. 
The  pastor  after  God's  own  heart  is  one  that  feeds  the  people 
with  knowledge  and  with  understanding — full  of  faith  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost,  and  mighty  in  the  Scriptures — showing  unto 
the  people  out  of  the  Scriptures  the  way  of  salvation  through 
Christ.  Oh,  that  the  vast  harvest-field  that  lies  all  around  us} 
already  ripe  for  the  sickle,  was  filled  with  a  great  multitude  of 
such  servants  of  the  Most  High  ! 

So  great  is   my  confidence  in  the  English  version,  that  I 


XVI  INTRODUCTION. 

have  not  knowingly  departed  from  it  in  a  single  instance  in 
the  examination  of  the  history  of  Esther.  I  do  not  remember 
to  have  met  with  any  discussion  as  to  the  merits  of  the  trans 
lation  of  Esther  in  our  version,  compared  with  the  translation 
of  the  other  historic  books ;  but  it  seems  to  me  to  be  an  ex 
ceedingly  correct  and  happy  version.  There  are  but  few 
words  that  could  possibly  be  improved.  The  only  change  I 
have  introduced  in  the  translation  is  to  omit  the  division  into 
chapters  and  verses,  which,  though  of  great  convenience  for 
reference,  is  often  a  marring  of  the  force  and  beauty  of  the 
text, 'especially  in  the  historical  parts  of  the  Old  Testament 
and  in  the  Epistles.  My  reverence  for  our  English  version  is 
equalled  only  by  my  regard  for  the  originals,  which  are  our 
standard  of  faith  and  manners. 

I  do  not  believe,  as  a  modern  poet  says,  that  the  Holy  Bible 
is  "good  Michael's  Scripture,"  and  that  "history  is  the  Devil's 
Scripture."  No,  the  Bible  is  the  word  of  the  Lord,  and  history 
is  but  a  record  of  how  He  governs  the  world.  The  great 
Bengel  has  truly  said,  that  the  "  true  commentator  will  fasten 
his  primary  attention  on  the  literal  meaning,  but  never  forget 
that  the  spirit  must  equally  accompany  him ;  and  at  the  same 
time,  we  must  never  devise  a  more  spiritual  meaning  for 
Scripture  passages  than  the  Holy  Spirit  intended."  But  as 
from  every  point  in  the  circumference  of  a  circle,  we  may 
imagine  straight  lines  converging  to  a  centre,  not  one  of 
which  is  exactly  coincident  with  another,  so  in  all  the  books 
of  the  Old  Testament,  I  find  either  types,  or  promises,  or  pro 
phecies,  or  national  events,  or  personal  narratives,  that  all 
point  to  the  Church  of  God  under  the  Great  Messiah  ;  and  so, 
in  expounding  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  by  searching  out 
cotemporary  and  subsequent  histories,  and  bringing  together 
things  new  and  old,  from  far  and  near,  for  the  purpose  of  com 
prehending  these  Old  Testament  Scriptures,  our  great  object 
always  is  to  make  the  Messiah  appear  as  He  really  is,  the  Re 
deemer  of  the  world.  I  have  attempted  always  in  interpreting 
the  Word  of  God,  to  follow  the  rule  of  Bengel :  "  Put  nothing 
into  the  Scriptures,  but  draw  every  thing  from  them,  and  suffer 


INTRODUCTION.  XV11 

nothing  to  remain  hidden  that  is  really  in  them."  I  do  not, 
however,  understand  it  to  be  the  duty  of  an  expositor  of  the 
Word  of  God,  to  go  through  it  selecting  only  "the  berries  and 
leaving  the  rest  as  fit  only  for  the  pruning  hook ;"  but  to  take 
all  the  Scriptures  together  and  just  as  they  are,  and  to  explain 
Scripture  by  Scripture,  and  that  remembering  the  character 
of  his  audience,  he  will  endeavor  to  have  the  true  text,  restore 
and  defend  it,  then  exhibit  the  meaning  and  force  of  the  lan 
guage  employed,  explain  the  circumstances  under  which  the 
portion  he  is  considering  was  uttered  or  written,  and  in  a 
word,  as  far  as  possible,  he  will  try  so  to  enlighten  his  hearers 
that  they  may  be  in  a  condition  to  understand  the  Scriptures  simi 
lar  to  that  of  the  hearers  of  the  Prophets  and  Apostles  them 
selves.  The  Church  of  God  in  the  days  of  the  Prophets,  and 
of  Jesus  Christ  and  his  Apostles,  did  not  require  annotations, 
illustrations,  Bible  dictionaries,  geographies  of  the  Holy  Land, 
and  maps  and  descriptions  of  the  birds,  beasts  and  flowers  of 
the  country,  nor  of  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  people. 
These  were  all  familiar  to  them ;  they  were  immersed  in  the 
knowledge  of  local  and  national  histories  and  customs,  as 
they  were  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  Holy  Mountains.  Accord, 
ingly,  in  the  first  ages  of  the  Church,  we  have  no  commen 
taries,  but  the  preaching  was  expository  and  homiletic.  If 
Paul  is  in  the  synagogue,  his  text  is  out  of  the  Hebrew  Scrip 
tures  ;  and  his  argument  is  to  show  that,  according  to  the  Scrip 
tures,  Jesus  is  Christ.  If  he  is  on  Mars'  hill,  his  text  is  the 
Athenian  altar  to  the  unknown  God,  and  his  proofs  and  illus 
trations  are  from  Greek  authors  and  from  the  works  of  the 
Supreme  Being.  What  are  dead  languages  to  us  were  living 
tongues  to  them,  and  the  knowledge  of  their  times,  which  we 
have  to  acquire  by  much  study,  was  their  common  patrimony. 
The  most  learned  men  of  our  day  are  hardly  as  well  acquainted 
with  some  of  the  idioms,  proverbs  and  local  customs,  some 
knowledge  of  which  is  necessary  to  the  elucidation  of  the 
Bible,  as  the  children  of  the  Church  were  in  the  days  of  the 
Prophets  and  of  the  Apostles.  It  takes  much  study  therefore 
to  put  us  on  the  same  platform  to  hear  the  early  teachers  of 
religion,  that  their  hearers  occupied. 


XV111  INTRODUCTION. 

It  is  my  firm  conviction — a  conviction  that  has  fixed  itself 
more  and  more  deeply  in  my  mind,  year  after  year,  that  the 
best,  and  indeed  the  only  way  to  resist  successfully  the  ex 
tremes  of  error,  fanaticism  and  rationalism,  to  which  we  are 
exposed,  is  to  give  more  heed  to  the  word  of  God.  The  Old 
Testament  ought  to  be  read  with  more  simplicity  and  humility, 
and  with  a  greater  disposition  to  rely  upon  its  statements,  and 
to  apply  its  truths  to  ourselves.  The  Old  Testament  is  not  a 
mere  Hebrew  ritual,  nor  a  mere  political  hand-book  of  the 
ancient  Jews.  It  is  as  much  a  part  of  the  word  of  the  living 
God  as  is  the  New  Testament,  and  we  are  to  study  it  as  well 
as  the  New  Testament,  if  we  desire  to  know  the  will  of  God. 
The  want  of  the  Church,  in  our  day,  is  earnest  faith ;  and 
this  is  wanting,  in  part,  because  the  Old  Testament  is  not 
studied,  and  its  meaning  clearly  apprehended.  While  we  have 
the  history  of  God's  chosen  people  in  the  Old  Testament,  their 
national  characteristics,  and  fortunes,  do  not  exhaust  its  mean 
ing.  The  God  of  the  Bible  is  just  as  near  to  America  as  to 
Western  Asia.  The  living  God  is  as  near  to  us  as  He  was  to 
Abraham  and  Moses,  although  His  presence  is  not  manifested 
in  the  same  way.  As  the  canon  of  Inspired  Scripture  is  closed, 
so  we  are  not  to  look  for  new,  nor  other  revelations,  neither 
by  visions,  voices,  nor  dreams,  nor  angels,  nor  spirits,  nor  in 
ternal  illumination ;  neither  to  add  to,  nor  even  to  explain  to 
us  the  Bible.  But  the  government  of  God  is  as  actual  in  our 
day  as  in  the  days  of  Moses — as  real  over  Americans  as  over 
the  Hebrews — though,  for  obvious  reasons,  the  form,  or  sym 
bol,  of  its  manifestation  is  different.  We  ought  then  to  study 
the  lives  of  Bible  men  and  women,  not  as  men  and  women  in 
a  book,  or  in  a  picture  gallery,  that  were  painted  from  fancy, 
but  as  real  men  and  women  like  ourselves — and  not  as  pro 
files,  but  as  full-faced  human  beings.  I  do  not  understand  the 
rationale  of  Bible  narratives  as  stripping  them  of  their  super 
natural,  or  Divine  and  theological  adjuncts.  These  narratives 
are  true  histories,  and  were  written  by  holy  men  of  old,  as 
they  were  moved  thereto  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  The  men  and 
women  of  the  Bible  are  made  known  to  us  by  their  doings, 


INTRODUCTION.  xix 

and,  as  we  look  at  the  pictures,  without  requiring  the  name 
to  be  written  below,  we  are  made  to  feel,  by  the  clear  light 
that  falls  upon  them  from  above,  that  they  are  true  pictures, 
and  inimitably  executed.  There  is  a  dramatic  power  in  the 
performances  of  Bible  penmen  that  no  mere  human  artist  ever 
possessed.  And  this  dramatic  power  consists,  in  part,  in  se 
lecting  a  man — a  common  man — a  man  not  distinguished,  so 
far  as  we  can  see,  by  any  peculiar  gifts  above  his  fellows — a 
man  who  seems  to  be  flesh  and  blood — agitated  with  the  same 
passions,  hopes  and  fears,  as  ourselves — and  yet,  to  bring  this 
human,  material,  sinful  man,  so  livingly  before  us,  that  while 
we  feel  that  he  is  indeed  an  individual  of  the  earth,  earthy, 
that  yet  he  is  more  than  an  ordinary  man — he  is  a  sample 
man — a  teaching  man — a  representative  man — a  man  set  forth 
by  the  spirit  of  God  to  illustrate  the  Divine  displeasure  at  sin, 
or  the  Divine  goodness.  If  I  do  not  succeed  in  revealing,  as 
I  would  in  my  Bible  readings  and  expositions,  the  thought 
that  here  possesses  me,  still,  I  am  perfectly  sure,  there  is  a 
grand  purpose  in  God's  plan  in  having  revealed  to  us  so  large 
a  portion  of  saving  truth  in  biographies.  And  I  am  more  and 
more  convinced,  that  one  great  cause  of  the  modern  growth 
of  fanaticism  and  infidelity,  is  to  be  found  in  the  departure 
of  so  many  teachers  from  the  custom  of  reading  and  expound 
ing  the  word  of  God.  It  is  worihy  of  serious  consideration, 
whether  there  is  not,  and  to  what  an  extent,  in  our  day,  in  the 
topical,  metaphysical  preaching  of  many,  and  in  not  a  few  of 
our  popular  tracts  and  treatises  on  practical  and  experimental 
religion,  theological  essays,  religious  tales,  and  pious  novels — 

which  are  worse  than  "  the  pious  frauds  of  the  dark  ages  " a 

dangerous  tendency  to  draw  away  the  public  mind  from  the 
BOOK  of  GOD.  Far  be  it  from  me  to  undervalue  good  books. 
Rather  let  us  thank  God  for  the  genius,  learning,  talent,  enter 
prise  and  wealth  that  have  been  employed  in  the  publication 
of  religious  works ;  but,  I  submit  it  as  an  humble  monitum, 
or  inquiry,  whether  the  frequent  religious  meetings,  the  cram 
ming  of  the  Lord's  day,  and  the  tendency  of  the  popular 
religious  literature,  of  our  day,  is  not  toward  a  substituting 


XX  INTRODUCTION. 

of  tracts  and  books,  and  newspapers  about  religion,  for  the 
Book  of  the  Lord,  which,  in  itself,  combines,  in  the  utmost 
plentitude  and  purity,  all  that  is  serviceable  to  the  health  of 
the  soul.  How  much  better,  for  one  truly  serious,  and  anx 
iously  inquiring  the  way  to  be  saved,  to  read  the  word  of  God 
itself,  and  then  get  down  on  his  knees,  in  his  closet,  and  bow 
his  soul  as  well  as  his  body,  as  Paul  did,  when  it  was  said  of 
him,  "  behold  he  prayeth,"  and  thus  plead  with  God  for  the 
enlightenment  of  his  Holy  Spirit,  rather  than  to  read  a  whole 
bundle  of  human  tracts,  or  listen  to  a  studied  narrative  of  his 
neighbor's  conversion  in  a  public  meeting.  There  is  no  hand 
book  for  revivals  like  the  inspired  history  of  remarkable  Bible 
conversions.  For  family  reading,  and  catechising  on  the 
afternoon  of  the  Lord's  day,  the  hot-house  system,  now  so 
much  in  vogue,  is  a  poor  substitute.  For  the  family,  and 
the  place  of  business,  the  church  and  the  world,  there  can 
be  no  substitute  for  the  Bible.  It  is  our  only  hope.  The  his 
tory  of  Christianity  shows  that  it  has  always  flourished  most 
when  it  is  just  let  alone  by  Caesar.  It  seeks  not  promotion, 
but  simple  protection  from  the  State.  And  history  now  shows, 
that  the  first  step  in  the  church  from  the  Bible,  is  a  step 
toward  error.  In  the  measure  that  we  neglect,  depart  from, 
or  substitute  any  other  writings  in  the  place  of  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  in  precisely  the  same  measure  we  throw  open  the 
gates  to  the  enemy.  It  must  be  remembered,  as  a  highly  sig 
nificant  fact,  that  our  Lord  contented  himself,  in  his  solitary 
combat  with  the  devil,  and  completely  foiled  him,  in  all  his 
assaults,  by  simply  saying:  It  is  written.  And  if  the  "It  is 
written  "  of  his  day,  that  is,  Moses  and  the  prophets,  was  suf 
ficient,  how  much  more  ought  we  to  rely  upon  the  whole 
Bible? 

Whatever  candid  readers  may  think  of  the  manner  in  which 
J;his  volume  is  written,  I  apprehend  they  will  all  agree  that 
the  history  of  ESTHER  is  one  of  the  most  beautiful  and  interest 
ing  books  of  the  Old  Testament.  These  pages  are  not  the  result 
of  undisturbed  literary  leisure.  Very  far  from  it.  They  have 
been  written  under  the  pressure  of  arduous  pastoral  duties — 


INTRODUCTION.  XXI 

under  the  weight  of  the  anxious  soul-consuming  cares  that  be 
long  to  a  large  congregation,  in  a  new  State,  and  in  the  first 
years  of  a  great  commercial  city.  That  they  are  perfect,  the 
author  would  be  the  last  man  to  believe.  No  one  can  feel 
more  sensibly  than  he  does  that  imperfections  attach  to  all 
his  efforts,  both  from  the  press  and  the  pulpit.  If,  then,  it  is 
asked,  Why  are  they  published  ?  the  answer  is,  partly  because 
the  work  has  been  called  for  by  friends,  whose  wishes  the 
author  did  not  feel  at  liberty  to  disregard  ;  and,  partly,  be 
cause,  as  heretofore,  so  now,  he  is  desirous  of  doing  all  he  can 
toward  the  promotion  of  a  sound  Christian  literature  on  this 
coast.  "  To  do  good,"  says  Lord  Bacon,  "  is  the  true  and 
lawful  end  of  aspiring.  Merit  and  good  works  is  the  end  of 
man's  motion,  and  conscience  of  the  same  is  the  accom 
plishment  of  man's  rest ;  for,  if  man  can  be  a  partaker  of 
God's  theater  (or  workshop,)  he  will  be  a  partaker  also  of 
God's  rest." 

It  may  be  proper  here  also  to  say,  that  I  have  complied  with 
the  wish  of  those  who  requested  these  lectures  to  be  pub 
lished,  (that  they  should  be  published  just  as  they  were  de 
livered,)  as  far  as  it  has  been  within  my  power  to  recall  and 
write  out,  from  my  manuscript  notes,  the  precise  language 
and  illustrations  used  from  the  pulpit,  with  the  following  ex 
ceptions,  namely,  that  the  lectures  are  divided  into  chapters, 
which  are  shorter  ;  and  a  part  of  what  was  delivered  in  the  last 
lecture  is  inserted  in  the  fourteenth  chapter,  because  it  seemed 
to  belong  rather  to  that  part  of  the  history.  And,  as  in  the 
great  overland  journey  across  our  continent,  the  way  is  une 
qual — there  is  a  variety  of  mountains  and  valleys,  long  and 
short  stations,  high  hills  and  wide  plains,  and  dark  mountain 
gorges — so,  also,  is  the  Volume  of  Inspiration.  And,  as  in  the 
overland  route,  similar  views  are  often  presented,  repeating 
the  visions  already  past,  and  yet  not  the  same  ;  so  here,  in  the 
following  pages,  there  may  seem  to  be  repetitions,  not  so  much 
of  words  as  of  ideas.  If  so,  the  reason  is  to  be  found,  first,  in 
the  fact,  that  I  have  endeavored  to  follow  the  order  and  me 
thod  of  the  sacred  narrative  itself,  and  to  present  the  thoughts 


XX11  INTRODUCTION. 

and  lessons  thereon  just  as  they  started  up  before  me,  taking 
the  pictures  of  the  way  just  as  they  came  to  hand.  I  could 
have  avoided  this,  if  I  had  thought  it  best  to  do  so  ;  but  as  it 
was  my  wish  to  follow  the  divine  method,  as  far  as  I  could, 
in  presenting  and  explaining  and  vindicating  the  laws,  the 
Word  and  the  ways  of  the  Lord,  and  as  similar  events  are  re 
peated  in  the  text,  so  similar  lessons  are  taught.  Secondly,  it 
has,  also,  just  been  said,  that  it  was  deemed  best  to  publish 
these  discourses,  as  nearly  as  possible,  word  for  word,  just  as 
they  were  delivered  from  the  pulpit,  and  as  their  delivery  ex 
tended  through  several  weeks,  and  was,  in  part,  before  differ 
ent  audiences,  so  some  repetition  was  necessary,  and,  partly 
for  the  same  reason,  is  still  retained.  And  I  am  the  more  re 
conciled  to  have  it  so,  from  the  fact  that  this  is  the  Bible 
method,  not  only  in  Esther,  but  generally — namely,  to  teach 
little  by  little,  line  upon  line,  and  precept  upon  precept.  As 
it  is  pleasant  to  the  traveler  to  have  a  change  of  scenery 
rather  than  to  have  all  the  mountains  together,  and  then  all 
the  hills,  and  then  nothing  but  a  wide  plain  ;  just  so  it  is  in 
history,  the  pictures  are  always  changing  and  always  repeat 
ing  themselves,  and  yet  they  are  not  the  same. 

The  errors  and  skeptical  objections  which  it  is  hoped  this 
volume  may  refute,  or  remove  from  the  minds  of  candid  in 
quirers  after  truth,  are  not  always  enumerated,  nor  the  names 
of  their  advocates  and  the  titles  of  their  works  given.  This 
has  not  seemed  to  be  necessary.  All  opinions  and  objections 
as  far  as  I  know  are  fairly  represented,  but  the  size  of  the  vol 
ume  and  many  other  reasons  forbid  their  full  elaboration.  I 
do  not  see  that  in  order  to  know  the  right  way  to  a  place,  we 
must  first  hunt  out  and  explore,  by  a  personal  survey,  all  the 
tracks  and  by-ways  that  lead  away  from  it.  It  may  be  that 
some  of  my  readers  are  in  happy  ignorance  of  the  errors  I  have 
tried  to  refute ;  if  so,  they  will  not  perceive  my  allusions,  nor 
is  it  necessary  they  should.  On  the  other  hand,  those  who  are 
acquainted  with  them  will  be  able  I  hope  to  understand  the 
refutation  offered.  As  to  the  truth  of  some  of  the  quotations 
used  in  this  volume  from  old  authors  and  from  the  reports  of 


INTRODUCTION.  XX111 

the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  and  other  readings  of  monuments, 
I  have  only  to  say  with  Pliny,  "  Penes  auctores  sit  fides." 
While  I  believe  them  to  be  reliable  and  substantially  correct, 
I  beg  that  the  authors  themselves  may  be  held  respectively 
responsible.  And  while  I  have  freely  used  all  the  authors 
within  my  reach  that  afforded  me  what  I  considered  reliable 
help  in  explaining  the  sacred  text,  yet  as  far  as  I  know,  all  due 
acknowledgments  are  made  in  the  body  of  the  work,  and  as 
far  as  my  knowledge  goes,  this  is  the  only  volume  of  the  kind 
offered  to  the  public  on  the  Book  of  Esther.  Indeed  one 
reason  why,  in  my  humble  publications,  I  have  selected  such 
subjects  as  "  The  Wedge  of  Gold,"  "  Samson,  the  Giant  Judge," 
and  the  Hebrew-Persian  Queen,  is  that  these  portions  of  our  holy 
writings  seemed  to  be  almost  overlooked.  As  Truth  is  of  too 
noble  and  holy  a  nature  to  be  forced  upon  mankind,  I  have 
only  to  add  as  one  before  me  has  done  :  "Pray,  place  the  Holy 
Scriptures,  kind  Reader,  before  you  on  the  desk  of  your  heart, 
and  acquaint  yourself  with  the  WHOLE  matter,  before  you  arrive 
at  a  decision."  "  Happy  is  he  that  speaketh  in  the  ears  of 
them  that  will  hear."  God  Almighty  bless  all  the  readers  of 
this  volume.  Amen. 

W.  A.  SCOTT. 


SAN  FRANCISCO,  10th  March,  1859. 


CIIAPTEK    I. 


PERSIA    PAST   AND    PRESENT. 

'And  see — the  Sun  himself! — on  wings 
Of  glory  up  the  East  he  springs 
Angel  of  light! 

Where  are  the  days,  thou  wondrous  sphere, 
When  IRAN,  like  a  sun -flower  turned 
To  meet  that  eye  where'er  it  burned? 

When,  from  the  banks  of  BENDEEMEER 
To  the  nut-groves  of  Samarcand 
Thy  temples  flam'd  o'er  all  the  land? 
Where  are  they  ?  ask  the  shades  of  them 

Who,  on  CADESSIA'S  bloody  plains, 
Saw  fierce  invaders  pluck  the  gem 
From  IRAN'S  broken  diadem.'' — Lalla  Rookh. 


THE  wars  of  Persia  with  G  reece,  the  lives  of  Oriental 
princes,  and  tales  arid  illustrations  of  the  manners  of 
the  East  a  long  time  ago,  are  a  part  of  the  early  studies 
of  our  boyhood,  and  a  never  failing  source  of  amuse 
ment  to  an  enlightened  mind,  through  all  the  periods 
of  life  down  to  old  age.  Even  the  loftiest  strains  of 
poetry  in  our  holy  prophetical  books  —  the  noblest  out 
pourings  of  Hebrew  song  are  about  the  people  who 
lived  on  the  Tigris  and  the  Euphrates  more  than  two 
thousand  years  ago.  And  even  now,  it  is  found  after 
centuries  for  research  and  examination,  and  after  the 
wonderful  discoveries  of  Botta,  Layard,  Rawlinson  and 
2 


26         THE  HEBREW -PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

others,  that  the  Hebrew  Scriptures  are  the  best  guide 
to  the  East — that  the  minutest  allusions  in  the  Bible 
to  the  habits  of  the  people  of  Bible  lands,  and  that 
even  the  details  of  their  wars  and  religions,  and  cus 
toms,  given  by  the  father  of  profane  history,  are  so 
accurately  told  that  the  history  of  the  inhabitants  of 
those  countries  in  the  present  day,  written  from  actual 
observation,  varies  in  but  few  things  from  that  of 
Herodotus. 

In  our  day,  the  long  sleep  of  Oriental  literature  is 
broken  —  never  again  to  be  resumed.  Its  untombed 
records  have  assumed  a  place,  in  historic  value,  above 
the  classic  glory  of  Greece  and  Rome.  The  scholar, 
the  antiquarian,  and  the  interpreter  of  ancient  records, 
have  vast  treasures  of  priceless  worth  now  opened  to 
them  that  were  hidden  for  ages.  The  fall  of  Constan 
tinople  somewhat  retarded  Oriental  studies  by  the  con 
sequent  revival  of  Greek  learning,  which  was  followed 
by  the  invention  of  printing  in  the  West.  The  ten 
dency  of  the  attention  given  to  Greek  literature,  and 
of  printing,  was  to  lay  aside  the  learning  of  the  East 
as  fabulous,  or  valueless.  But,  for  the  last  three  cen 
turies,  European  travelers  and  scholars  have  been  dili 
gent  in  those  researches  that  have  so  happily  resulted 
in  our  present  attainments. 

As  we  are  desirous  of  becoming  acquainted  with 
some  of  the  most  remarkable  personages,  aud  some  of 
the  most  extraordinary  events  of  ancient  Persia,  a  brief 
reference  to  its  legendary  history  seems  necessary  to 
enable  us  to  form  something  like  a  correct  opinion  con 
cerning  its  institutions.  All  men  of  letters  have  admired 
her  poets,  Jami,  Hajiz,  Saadi  and  Flrdusi;  but 


ALEXANDER     IN     PERSIA.  27 

Persia  has  been  admired  for  something  more  than  her 
poets.  Alexander  the  Great  intensely  coveted  her  do 
minions,  not  so  much  because  she  was  the  favorite 
country  of  the  imagination,  as  because  she  was  wealthy 
and  powerful.  The  legends  of  the  golden  egg,  and 
like  fancies,  do  not  solve  the  great  question,  why  Alex 
ander  marched  his  armies  across  her  territory.  Was 
it  then  to  revenge  Greece  for  Persian  invasions  before 
his  day  ?  or  was  it  merely  to  imitate  the  exploits  of 
Achilles,  whom  he  greatly  admired,  and  whose  his 
tory  he  diligently  studied  ?  No.  I  believe  his  was  a 
nobler  ambition  —  an  ambition  as  justifiable  as  that 
which  inspired  Napoleon,  when  he  invaded  Egypt  and 
dreamed  of  an  Oriental  empire  —  an  ambition  in  every 
way  as  justifiable  as  that  of  the  English  in  the  conquest 
of  India,  or  of  China — the  very  same  in  substance 
that  now  moves  all  the  great  powers  of  Europe,  and  the 
United  States,  to  seek  an  extension  of  their  influence 
over  the  populous  regions  of  the  East,  namely :  to 
carry  European,  that  is,  as  it  was  called  in  Alexander's 
day,  Greek  enterprise  into  Asia,  and  thereby  awaken 
its  decaying  kingdoms,  and  stimulate  them  to  trade 
and  civilization.  No  doubt  he  wished,  at  the  same 
time  that  he  was  thus  arousing  them,  to  make  them 
develop  the  riches  of  their  country,  and  doubtless,  also, 
he  was  quite  willing,  as  a  conqueror,  to  take  the  lion's 
share,  but  in  as  honorable  a  way  as  is  practiced  in  our 
day.  That  such  views  were  entertained  by  him  is 
proven  from  his  enlarged  ideas  of  trade,  and  his  build 
ing  of  cities  and  highways  of  travel  and  commerce. 

These   remarks   are   made,   not  for  the   purpose   of 
indorsing  the  wars  of  Alexander  the  Great,  but  because 

2A 


28  THE     HEBREW -PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

it  seems  to  me,  justice  lias  rarely  been  done  to  his  genius 
and  policy.  Many  cities  were  founded  by  him  and  the 
clearness  of  his  foresight  and  the  soundness  of  his 
judgment  are  seen  in  their  continuance  to  this  day  as 
great  seats  of  trade.  And  so  great  is  the  popularity  of 
his  name  even  in  our  times  that  many  of  the  tribes  of 
the  East,  claim  to  be  his  descendants.  He  was  a 
Pagan,  and  did  many  very  wicked  things,  but  in  his 
desire  to  possess  Persia,  and  to  advance  into  India  from 
the  west,  he  has  been  often  imitated,  and  has  his  sue. 
cessors  in  our  day  among  several  Christian  crowns. 
Persia  was  the  scene  of  some  of  his  greatest  exploits. 
Chingbis-Khan  and  Timur-lane  also  led  their  plunder 
ing  hosts  over  the  same  mountains  and  plains.  Roman 
Emperors  and  generals  and  Moslem  Kaliphs  were  in 
their  day  familiar  with  its  cities  and  fortresses  and 
battle-plains.  As  in  Spain,  first  civilized  by  the  Phe- 
nicians  and  long  possessed  by  the  Moors,  we  find  Pagan, 
Roman  and  Eastern  customs  long  obsolete  elsewhere 
turning  up  at  every  step  in  the  cabinet  and  in  the  cam 
paign,  in  the  palace  and  in  the  house,  field  and  church; 
so  it  is  in  Persia.  It  is  in  Persia  as  much — perhaps 
more  than  in  any  other  land  that  we  find  in  our  day 
ancient  customs  preserved  with  the  greatest  tenacity — 
especially  such  as  are  referred  to  in  the  Bible.  The 
mountain-ranges  and  rivers  and  physical  features  of 
Persia  are  now  as  they  were  when  Alexander  conquered 
her  and  Xenophon  wrote  his  classic  chapters.  No 
canals  have  been  dug,  no  railroads  built,  and  the  posts 
are  inferior  to  those  of  Cyrus.  And  the  manners  of 
the  people  are  less  changed  than  in  any  other  oriental 
nation.  The  throne  of  the  Shah  is  shorn  indeed  of 


THE    ROYAL    SCRIBES.  29 

some  of  the  bright  beams  of  the  ancient  dynasties  of 
Persia,  but  still  it  recalls  the  glory  of  Cyrus,  and  the 
power  of  Darius  and  Sapor.  "  In  Egypt/'  says  "  The 
Modern  Traveller/'  "  the  intrusive  Turk  or  Mamlouk, 
the  degraded  Copt,  or  the  miserable  Fellah,  are  dwarfed 
beside  the  gigantic  monuments  of  the  past,  and  hardly 
appear  to  belong  to  a  scene  where  art  and  nature  seem 
alike  eternal  and  MAN  is  nothing ;  in  Persia  it  is  the 
living  scene,  the  faded  yet  still  imposing  pageantry, 
the  various  tribes,  and  the  diversified  traits  of  human 
character  that  chiefly  occupy  attention,  and  by  these 
faithful  transcripts  of  the  former  ages  it  is  that  the 
imagination  is  transported  far  back  into  the  past.* 

Although  Persia,  in  her  earliest  ages,  seems  to  have 
altogether  wanted  the  poet  historian,  she  was  not  want 
ing  in  royal  scribes.  These  secretaries,  Mirzas,  as  they 
are  called  in  modern  times,  were  constantly  with  their 
kiiiGrs — at  feasts  and  councils,  and  on  the  field  of  bat- 

O  / 

tie.  It  was  their  duty  to  note  down  at  the  time  his 
words,  and  make  a  record  of  his  deeds.  A  similar  cus 
tom  prevailed  among  most  Asiatic  nations.  The  Mo 
gul  conquerors  had  their  scribes.  The  great  Hyder 
Ali  used  to  appear  in  public  surrounded  by  forty  secre 
taries.  Such  records  doubtless  were  the  chronicles  de 
posited  at  Babylon,  Ecbatana,  and  Susa.  The  personal 
anecdotes  and  private  conversations  preserved  by  Herod 
otus,  are  probably  a  fair  specimen  of  these  records. 
They  were  not  designed  to  be  a  history  of  the  empire, 
nor  of  the  people,  but  of  the  court.  Herod,  vii.  100, 
vi.  98 ;  viii.  96,  and  Ezra,  vi.  i.  Esther,  vi.  i.  We 
shall  have  occasion  to  speak  of  them  again. 


*Vaux's  Nineveh  and  Persepolis. 


30        THE  HEBREW -PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

The  grCcat  historic  poets  of  Persia  are  Mirkhond  and 
Firdusi,  and  Khondemir,  son  of  Mirkhond.  Their 
memorials  of  the  empire  are  partly  from  traditions,  and 
partly  from  records,  and  are  very  valuable  as  exponents 
of  the  inner  life — the  thoughts,  manners  and  customs, 
of  their  forefathers.  They  tell  us  that  the  ancient 
name  of  Persia  was  Iran,  and  that  ten  tribes  were 
united  in  composing  its  first  inhabitants.  According  to 
Mohammedan  writers,  the  founder  of  the  Pischadian 
dynasty  the  first  monarch  of  Persia  was  Kaioinurs,  the 
son  of  Yasan  Asam,  the  grandson  of  Noah.  And  that 
he  was  a  long  time  subject  to  the  Magicians,  but  at 
length  emancipated  himself  from  their  tyranny,  by  the 
aid  of  tigers,  panthers  and  lions.  The  famous  Jamshid, 
his  nephew,  succeeded  his  son  Hoshung,  who  was  his 
immediate  successor.  The  legends  concerning  Jamshid 
are  numerous  and  curious.  They  suit  for  an  epic  rather 
than  for  a  sober  history.  As  a  history  of  Persia,  how 
ever,  beyond  Cyrus,  we  have  nothing  better  than  the 
fabulous  annals  of  Jamshid  and  his  successors. 

Impenetrable  obscurity  reigns  over  the  early  history 
of  Persia.  Most  of  the  early  Persian  writers  have  so 
mixed  up  their  history  with  tales  of  griffins,  monster 
giants  and  fairies,  that  no  sober  or  reliable  account  can 
be  gathered  from  their  writings.  According  to  some 
of  them,  several  of  the  first  kings  of  the  dynasty  which 
they  call  the  Pischadian,  reigned  from  five  hundred  to 
one  thousand  years  each.  The  order  of  its  rise  seems 
to  be  Iran,  Turan,  and  then  Assyria,  and  then  a  second 
Persian  dynasty  of  the  Kaianites,  and  then  Media,  un 
der  Cyaxares,  and  then  Persia  proper  under  Cyrus 
the  Great.  Xeriophon  traces  the  pedigree  of  Cyrus  up 
to  Perses,  who  gave  name  to  the  country. 


PERSIA    IN     THE     BIBLE.  31 

The  first  name  by  which  Persia  is  known  to  us  in 
the  Bible  is  Elam,  G-en.  xiv.  1,  which  is  to  be  regarded 
as  identical  with  Kurdistan  and  Khuzistan.  The  date 
of  the  events  spoken  of  in  Genesis  is  thought  by  Vaux 
and  others  to  be  contemporary  with  the  beginning  of 
the  Assyrian  and  Babylonian  empires.  Balkh,  (Bactra,) 
the  capital  of  Kaiomurs,  is  considered  in  the  East  as 
the  oldest  city  on  the  globe.  It  is  called  Omm-al-belad, 
the  mother  of  cities.  From  the  time  of  Abraham,  when 
Elam  was  a  kingdom,  to  Isaiah,  nothing  occurs  in 
sacred  history  that  belongs  especially  to  Persia.  Isaiah, 
however,  speaks  of  the  Elamites  as  a  warlike  nation, 
"  bearing  the  quiver,"  xxii.  6.  And  this  account 
agrees  exactly  with  what  Strabo  says  of  the  mountaineers 
of  Elymais.  Jeremiah  (xlix.  34,  39)  foretells  the  over 
throw  of  Elam  arid  its  subsequent  recovery,  which  his 
tory  records  as  fulfilled. 

The  hero  of  Firdusi  is  Rustam,  but  Sir  John  Mal 
colm  labors  with  great  zeal  to  show  that  the  Kai-Khosru 
of  this  poet  is  Cyrus  the  Great.  This  is  probably  cor 
rect;  and  the  poem  itself,  Slidh  Namch,  is  a  wonderful 
illustration  of  how  the  fragments  of  history  may  be  em 
balmed  in  poetry.  The  fragments  from  which  he  com 
posed  this  work  were  in  Pehlvi,  and  are  interspersed 
with  incidents  and  exploits  belonging  to  the  history  of 
China,  India  and  Turan,  while  there  is  no  allusion  to 
the  kings  of  Assyria,  Egypt  or  Babylon.  The  tradi 
tions  of  the  East  say  that  Cyrus'  mother  was  a  Jewess, 
and  on  that  account  he  was  so  favorably  inclined  to  that 
remarkable  people.  For  some  four  centuries  the  Romans 
called  the  rulers  of  Persia  by  the  name  of  Khosrus  or 
Chosroes,  that  is,  Cyrus.  The  Kai  occurring  so  often 


.  ;; 


32        THE  HEBREW -PERSIAN  QUEEN. 


in  the  history  of  ancient  Persia,  means  King  j  and  is 
succeeded  by  Shall  in  our  day. 

The  order  of  the  empires  that  rose  on  the  Tigris  and 
the  Euphrates  is  after  this  manner  :  The  Assyrian, 
Chaldean  and  Mcdo-Persian,  the  Greek,  Roman  and 
Saracen,  which  was  succeeded  by  the  Persian  kingdom 
of  our  own  day.  The  Assyrian  empire,  of  which  Nine 
veh  was  the  chief  city,  was  probably  founded  by  Niinrod. 
It  unquestionably  goes  back  to  a  very  early  period  after 
the  flood.  The  area  of  the  Persian  dominions  in 
Esther's  day  was  the  seat  of  the  great  empires  of  Daniel's 
visions,  which,  as  to  time  and  manner,  rose  to  power 
and  passed  away  with  an  astonishing  conformity  to  his 
predictions. 

But  little  is  known  of  Median  history.  The  Modes 
are  believed  to  have  been  an  intelligent  and  wealthy 
people  long  previous  to  the  Persian  conquest.  Their 
government  was  despotic,  but  the  etiquette  and  stric 
tures  of  their  court  remarkable.  Cyrus  the  G  reat,  who 
is  to  be  regarded  as  the  founder  of  the  Persia  of  his 
tory,  made  Media,  by  forcible  seizure,  a  part  of  the 
Persian  empire.  His  dominions  occupied  the  regions 
of  all  the  older  empires  of  that  part  of  the  globe  that 
ad  preceded  him.  The  period  of  our  Hebrew-Persian 
Queen  is  about  500  years  before  th£..JiiilJ[i_of_jChrist, 
and  lies  between  the  famous  battle  of  Marathon  and  the 
retreat  of  the  ten  thousand  Greeks.  Postumius  and 
Furius  being  consuls  at  Home.  The  Chaldean  monar 
chy,  the  lion  empire  of  the  Hebrew  prophet,  has  past 
away.  All  comes  to  pass  in  its  day  just  as  Daniel  sees 
and  describes  it  standing  on  the  banks  of  the  river 
Ulai  (Eulaeus  of  the  Greeks).  Medes  and  Persians, 


DANIEL'S  PROPHECY  FULFILLED.  33 

Greeks  and  Romans,  take  their  places  in  history  pre-  j, 
cisely  according  to  the  prophet's  assignment,  just  as  if 
they  were  pieces  played  by  an  invisible  master  on  the 
Chess-board  of  the  Universe.  The  two-horned  rani  of 
Daniel  signified  the  Medo-Persian  kingdom.  And  the 
proof  is  complete  that  Persia  was  represented  at  first 
by  a  ram.  This  is  seen  in  ancient  coins  and  from  the 
sculptures  on  the  pillars  of  Persepolis.  Aininianus 
Marcellinus  expressly  says  that  "  the  King  of  Persia 
wore  a  ram's  head  of  gold,  set  with  precious  stones, 
instead  of  a  diadem."  And  it  is  also  abundantly  in 
proof,  that  as  Persia  was  represented  by  a  ram,  so  was 
Macedonia  by  a  goat,  and  both  these  symbols  agree 
with  Daniel's  vision.  The  story  is  that  the  first  colony 
of  Macedon  were  directed  to  take  a  goat  for  a  guide 
and  that  they  were  to  build  a  city,  wherever  the  leading 
goat  halted  his  flock,  which  they  did,  and  called  it 
.ZEgese,  from  ^Egus,  a  goat,  and  hence  the  people 
called  themselves  ./Egeadae,  and  hence  we  have  the 
name  jEc/ean  for  the  sea  that  washed  their  coast. 
Ancient  Macedonian  monuments  contain  this  figure, 
and  at  Persepolis  the  subjection  of  the  Macedonians  to 
the  Persians  in  the  reign  of  Amyntas  is  recorded  by 
representing  a  Persian  as  holding  a  goat  by  the  horn. 
And  in  the  Florentine  collection  there  is  a  gem  with 
an  engraving  which  was  probably  made  after  Alexan 
der's  conquest  of  Asia,  representing  the  Persian  ram 
and  the  Macedonian  goat  united,  that  is,  the  two  heads 
are  conjoined. 

If  you  visit  Khuzistan,  a  province  of  the  Persia  that 
now  is,  you  will  see  the  kingdom  of  ancient  Susiana. 
In  the  first  years  of  Cyrus,  this  country  was  governed 

2B 


34        THE  HEBREW -PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

by  his  friend  and  ally.  Abradates,  but,  at  his  death,  it 
was  incorporated  with  the  Persian  monarchy.  Should 
you  ever  travel  through  it,  you  will  find  the  northern 
part  of  it  hilly,  while  the  central  portion  of  it  is  a 
great  plain,  the  greater  part  of  which  is  very  fertile, 
but  the  southern  and  eastern  part  is  chiefly  a  sandy 
desert,  or  extensive  morasses.  The  banks  of  the  rivers, 
in  the  southern  and  eastern  portions,  are  capable  of 
cultivation,  llice,  indigo,  wheat,  barley,  poppies,  dates 
and  sugar  cane  are  raised.  The  climate  is  considered 
remarkably  healthy;  so  much  so,  that  the  inhabitants 
of  the  surrounding  provinces  resort  to  it  when  sick, 
just  as  the  old  lloman  invalids  used  to  go  to  Egypt. 
The  winters  are  mild,  and  the  springs  proverbially  the 
delight  of  the  earth.  In  the  summer  the  heat,  how 
ever,  is  so  intense  that  the  people  spend  the  day  in 
subterranean  chambers,  and  sleep  on  the  house  tops,  in 
the  open  air,  at  night.  The  chief  trade  of  Shuster  is 
in  opium,  indigo  and  sugar.  Opium  is  produced  here 
in  great  quantities  from  the  large  and  beautiful  Orien 
tal  poppy.  The  sugar  of  the  country  is  very  fine,  and 
produced  in  a  considerable  quantity.  The  luxuriance 
of  the  sugar  cane,  and  the  excellence  of  the  manufac 
tured  sugar  is  so  great  that  the  province  is  said  to  have 
its  name  from  its  staple  commodity — Khuzistan,  that 
is,  sugar  country. 

The  animals  of  this  country  are  jackals  and  hyenas, 
which  are  very  numerous,  and  their  nightly  howlings 
a  great  annoyance.  Antelopes  and  gazelles  are  numer 
ous,  and  the  winged  songsters  are  the  same  that  are 
found  in  southern  Europe.  Locusts,  all  sorts  of  lizards 
and  insects,  and  venomous  reptiles  are  found  in  great 


MODERN     PERSIA     COVETED.  35 

abundance.  This  is  the  country,  also,  of  the  camel 
and  of  the  wild  ass,  the  wild  boar  and  the  lion.  "  The 
wild  ass  of  the  wilderness  that  snuffeth  up  the  wind  at 
her  pleasure/'  is  a  beautiful  creature,  and  so  swift  in 
her  native  wilds  that  she  can  be  caught  only  by  relays 
of  horses  and  dogs. 

It  is  foreign  to  my  present  purpose  to  dwell  on  the 
history  of  Persia  from  the  death  of  Esther  to  the  de 
feat  of  the  Persians  by  the  Arabs  on  "the  bloody 
plains  of  Cadessia,"  where  Iran's  ancient  diadem  was 
broken,  or  to  speak  of  Persia  under  the  Saracens,  and 
of  her  emancipation  from  them,  and  her  present 
dynasty  of  Shahs.  This  belongs  properly  to  the  gene 
ral  historian  and  to  the  political  writers  of  the  great 
Powers  of  Europe  and  Asia,  who  are  all  struggling  to 
get  the  ascendancy  in  Persia,  just  as  heirs  intrigue  for 
a  dying  man's  estates.  Of  the  Tartars,  the  Seljukian 
Turks,  Turkomans,  "the  white  sheep  dynasty,"  of 
Hassan,  Hussein,  Gengis-Khan,  Nader  Shah,  "  the 
great  Moguls,"  "  the  terrible  Afghans,"  Irak,  Shiraz, 
Bagdad  and  Mosul,  and  of  the  fight  between  the  Brit 
ish  lion  and  the  Russian  bear  for  the  vineyards  of  the 
Persian  Naboths,  I  shall  say  nothing.  Sure  I  am, 
however,  as  the  poet  says,  that 

u  All  regions,  revolutions,  fortunes,  fates 
Of  high,  of  low,  of  mind  and  matter,  roll 
Through  the  short  channels  of  expiring  time, 
Or  shoreless  ocean  of  eternity, 
In  absolute  subjection" 

to  the  mandate  of  Him  who  setteth  up  one  and  casteth 
down  another,  and  doeth  His  will  on  earth  and  in  the 
armies  of  heaven. 

Happy  then  that  people  whose   God   is   the  Lord. 
Happy  the  nation  that  trusts  in  the  Great  Disposer  of 


36        THE  HEBREW  -  PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

human  events,  amid  the  ever-changing  scenes  of  time. 
In  an  empire  so  vast  and  so  populous  as  that  of  the 
great  king  Ahasuerus,  there  were  many  large  cities,  of 
which  little  beyond  their  names,  or  the  simple  fact  of 
their  having  once  existed,  is  now  known.  It  is  diffi 
cult,  and  has,  in  fact,  been  done  only  in  a  few  in 
stances,  to  identify  the  mouldering  remnants  of  cities 
that  are  scattered  over  the  vast  tracts  of  Persia,  with 
the  names  of  the  cities  described  in  the  ancient  history 
of  that  country. 

But  the  same  thing  is  true  of  the  mighty  cities  of 
Egypt,  Babylon  and  Greece.  And  is  there  not  a  day 
coming  when  the  mighty  cities  of  our  times  shall  be  as 
these  mighty  cities  of  old  now  are  ?  "  A  school  boy's 
tale,  the  wonder  of  an  hour/7  The  reins  of  the  Universe 
however  are  in  the  hands  of  the  same  Supreme  Ruler 
that  governed  the  world  when  Ahasuerus  reigned  from 
India  to  Ethiopia.  The  hand  of  God  is  just  as  truly  in 
the  modern  as  in  the  ancient  history  of  Persia,  There 
is  a  God  that  judgeth  in  the  earth  in  America,  just  as 
much  as  in  Asia.  His  eye  and  his  laws  are  just  as 
much  over  London  and  San  Francisco,  as  they  ever 
were  over  Babylon  and  Susa.  It  is  just  as  true  now, 
as  when  Mordecai  was  made  Grand  Vizier,  that  "  there 
is  a  reward  for  the  righteous/'  We  have  then  a  per 
sonal  interest  in  keeping  the  commandments  of  our 
God,  for  in  keeping  of  them  there  is  great  reward.  And 
we  have  a  deep  personal  interest  in  escaping  from  the 
wrath  to  come  !  Let  us  then  well  consider  the  great 
question  of  the  poet : 

That  day  of  wrath,  that  dreadful  day, 
When  heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away, 
What  power  shall  be  the  sinner's  stay  ? 
How  shall  he  meet  that  dreadful  day  ? 


THE    DAY    OF    WRATH.  37 

When  shivering  like  a  parched  scroll, 
The  naming  heavens  together  roll ! 
When  louder  yet,  and  yet  more  dread, 
Swells  the  high  trump  that  wakes  the  dead  : 

Oh !  on  that  day,  that  wrathful  day, 
When  man  to  judgment  wakes  from  clay, 
Be  thou  the  trembling  sinner's  stay, 
Though  heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away. 

Sir  Walter  Scott. 


CHAPTER  II. 


THE     MEGILLOTH     ESTHER. 


Hast  them  ever  heard 


Of  such  a  book?  the  author,  God  himself; 
The  subject,  God  and  man  ;  salvation,  life 
And  death — eternal  life,  eternal  death." 


"  Read  and  revere  the  sacred  page ;  a  page 
Where  triumphs  immortality  ;  a  page 
Which  not  the  whole  creation  could  produce ; 
Which  not  the  conflagration  shall  destroy  ; 
In  Nature's  ruins  not  one  letter  lost ; 
Tis  printed  in  the  mind  of  gods  forever." 

There  is  a  remarkable  people  scattered  over  the 
world  who  have  preserved  their  identity  and  national 
rites  and  festivals  without  having  any  home  or  any 
nationality  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  Wherever  they 
are  found,  from  pole  to  pole,  whether  of  fair  complexion, 
as  in  Europe,  or  bronzed  as  in  Asia,  or  "dark  as  any 
Ethiop"  in  Africa;  whether  speaking  Iluss,  Polish, 
G-erman,  Spanish,  Italian,  Hindoo,  or  Arabic  or  Eng 
lish,  they  all  observe  an  annual  feast  at  which  the  fol 
lowing  narrative  is  read,  just  as  Americans  read  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  on  the  Fourth  of  July. 
The  Megllloth  Esther,  as  they  call  the  sacred  roll  which 
is  read  at  the  feast  of  Purim, 

"  Is  not  a  theologic  tract 

To  prove  with  Hebrew  and  with  Arabic 
If  Job  be  allegory  or  a  fact, 

But  a  true  narrative, " 


40        THE  HEBREW -PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

of  what  happened  to  their  fathers  many  years  ago  in 
the  land  of  their  captivity.  The  original  is  in  Hebrew, 
and  has  been  preserved  with  great  care  and  fidelity. 
The  following  is  the  most  faithful,  elegant,  and  in  every 
way  the  best  translation  that  has  yet  been  made  of  it 
into  English.  It  was  made  in  the  early  part  of  the 
seventeenth  century  by  some  of  the  best  scholars  then 
living,  at  the  special  command  of  a  great  and  learned 
king  of  England,  who  had  been  educated  by  a  Scotch 
pedagogue  of  great  celebrity : 


THE   MEGILLOTH   ESTHER. 

Now  it  came  to  pass  in  the  days  of  Ahasuerus,  (this 
is  Ahasuerus  which  reigned  from  India  even  unto 
Ethiopia,  over  an  hundred  and  seven  and  twenty  pro 
vinces:)  that  in  those  days,  when  the  king  Ahasuerus 
sat  on  the  throne  of  his  kingdom,  which  was  in  Shushan 
the  palace,  in  the  third  year  of  his  reign,  he  made  a 
feast  unto  all  his  princes  and  his  servants;  the  power 
of  Persia  and  Media,  the  nobles  and  princes  of  the 
provinces,  being  before  him :  when  he  showed  the 
riches  of  his  glorious  kingdom  and  the  honor  of  his 
excellent  majesty  many  days,  even  an  hundred  and  four 
score  days.  And  when  these  days  were  expired,  the 
king  made  a  feast  unto  all  the  people  that  were  present 
in  Shushan  the  palace,  both  unto  great  and  small,  seven 
days,  in  the  court  of  the  garden  of  the  king's  palace; 
where  were  white,  green,  and  blue  hangings,  fastened 
with  cords  of  fine  linen  and  purple  to  silver  rings  and 
pillars  of  marble:  the  bods  were  of  gold  and  silver, 
upon  a  pavement  of  red,  and  blue,  and  white,  and  black 
marble.  And  they  gave  them  drink  in  vessels  of  gold, 
(the  vessels  boing  diverse  one  from  another,)  and  royal 


THE     FEAST    AND    VASHTI.  41 

wine  in  abundance,  according  to  the  state  of  the  king. 
And  the  drinking  was  according  to  the  law;  none  did 
compel :  for  so  the  king  had  appointed  to  all  the  officers 
of  his  house,  that  they  should  do  according  to  every 
man's  pleasure.  Also  Vashti  the  queen  made  a  feast 
for  the  women  in  the  royal  house  which  belonged  to 
king  Ahasuerus. 

On  the  seventh  day,  when  the  heart  of  the  king  was 
merry  with  wine,  he  commanded  Mehumau,  Biztha, 
Harbona,  Bigtha,  and  Abagtha,  Zethar,  and  Carcas, 
the  seven  chamberlains  that  served  in  the  presence  of 
Ahasuerus  the  king,  to  bring  Vashti  the  queen  before 
the  king  with  the  crown  royal,  to  show  the  people  and 
the  princes  her  beauty:  for  she  was  fair  to  look  on. 
But  the  queen  Vashti  refused  to  come  at  the  king's 
commandment  by  his  chamberlains :  therefore  was  the 
king  very  wroth,  and  his  anger  burned  in  him. 

Then  the  king  said  to  the  wise  men,  which  knew  the 
times,  (for  so  was  the  king's  manner  toward  all  that 
knew  law  and  judgment:  and  the  next  unto  him  was 
Carshena,  Shethar,  Admatha,  Tarshish,  Meres,  Marse- 
na,  and  Memucan,  the  seven  princes  of  Persia  and 
''Media,  which  saw  the  king's  face,  and  which  sat  the 
first  in  the  kingdom  •)  what  shall  we  do  unto  the  queen 
Vashti  according  to  law,  because  she  hath  not  performed 
the  commandment  of  the  king  Ahasuerus  by  the  cham 
berlains?  And  Memucan  answered  before  the  king 
and  the  princes,  Vashti  the  queen  hath  not  done  wrong 
to  the  king  only,  but  also  to  all  the  princes,  and  to  all 
the  .people  that  are  in  all  the  provinces  of  the  king 
Ahasuerus.  For  this  deed  of  the  queen  shall  come 
abroad  unto  all  women,  so  that  they  shall  despise  their 


42  THE     HEBREW -PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

husbands  in  their  eyes,  when  it  shall  he  reported,  The 
king  Ahasuerus  commanded  Vashti  the  queen  to  he 
brought  in  before  him,  but  she  came  not.  Likewise 
shall  the  ladies  of  Persia  and  Media  say  this  day  unto 
all  the  king's  princes,  which  have  heard  of  the  deed  of 
the  queen.  Thus  shall  there  arise  too  much  contempt 
and  wrath.  If  it  please  the  king,  let  there  go  a  royal 
commandment  from  him,  and  let  it  be  written  among 
the  laws  of  the  Persians  and  the  Medes,  that  it  be  not 
altered,  That  Vashti  come  no  more  before  king  Aha 
suerus;  and  let  the  king  give  her  royal  estate  unto 
another  that  is  better  than  she.  And  when  the  king's 
decree  which  he  shall  make  shall  be  published  through 
out  all  his  empire,  (for  it  is  great,)  all  the  wives  shall 
give  to  their  husbands  honor,  both  to  great  and  small. 

And  the  saying  pleased  the  king  and  the  princes; 
and  the  king  did  according  to  the  word  of  Menmcan : 
for  he  sent  letters  into  all  the  king's  provinces,  into 
every  province  according  to  the  writing  thereof,  and  to 
every  people  after  their  language,  that  every  man  should 
bear  rule  in  his  own  house;  and  that  it  should  be  pub 
lished  according  to  the  language  of  every  people. 

After  these  things,  when  the  wrath  of  king  Ahasue 
rus  was  appeased,  he  remembered  Vashti,  and  what  she 
had  done,  and  what  was  decreed  against  her.  Then 
said  the  king's  servants  that  ministered  unto  him,  Let 
there  be  fair  young  virgins  sought  for  the  king;  and 
let  the  king  appoint  officers  in  all  the  provinces  of  his 
kingdom,  that  they  may  gather  together  all  the  fair 
young  virgins  unto  Shushan  the  palace,  to  the  house  of 
the  women,  unto  the  custody  of  Hege  the  king's  cham 
berlain,  keeper  of  the  women;  and  let  their  things  for 


ESTHER    IN     THE     HAREM.  43 

purification  be  given  them :  and  let  the  maiden  which 
pleaseth  the  king  be  queen  instead  of  Vashti.  And 
the  thing  pleased  the  king;  and  he  did  so. 

Now  in  Shushan  the  palace  there  was  a  certain  Jew, 
whose  name  was  Mordecai,  the  son  of  Jair,  the  son 
of  Shimei,  the  son  of  Kish,  a  Benjamite;  who  had 
been  carried  away  from  Jerusalem  with  the  captivity 
which  had  been  carried  away  with  Jaconiah  king  of 
Judah,  whom  Nebuchadnezzar  the  king  of  Babylon  had 
carried  away.  And  he  brought  up  Hadassah,  (that  is, 
Esther,)  his  uncle's  daughter:  for  she  had  neither 
father  nor  mother,  and  the  maid  was  fair  and  beautiful  j 
whom  Mordecai,  when  her  father  and  mother  were 
dead,  took  for  his  own  daughter. 

So  it  came  to  pass,  when  the  king's  commandment 
and  his  decree  was  heard,  and  when  many  maidens 
were  gathered  together  unto  Shushan  the  palace,  to  the 
custody  of  Hegai,  that  Esther  was  brought  also  into  the 
king's  house,  to  the  custody  of  Hegai,  keeper  of  the 
women.  And  the  maiden  pleased  him,  and  she  obtained 
kindness  of  him;  and  he  speedily  gave  her  her  things 
for  purification,  with  such  things  as  belonged  to  her, 
and  seven  maidens  which  were  meet  to  be  given  her, 
out  of  the  king's  house:  and  he  preferred  her  and  her 
maids  unto  the  best  place  of  the  house  of  the  women. 
Esther  had  not  shewed  her  people  nor  her  kindred :  for 
Mordecai  had  charged  her  that  she  should  not  shew  it. 
And  Mordecai  walked  every  day  before  the  court  of  the 
women's  house,  to  know  how  Esther  did,  and  what 
should  become  of  her. 

Now  when  every  maid's  turn  was  come  to  go  in  to 
king  Ahasuerus,  after  that  she  had  besn  twelve  months, 


44        THE  HEBREW -PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

according  to  the  manner  of  the  women,  (for  so  were 
the  days  of  their  purifications  accomplished,  to  wit,  six 
months  with  oil  of  myrrh,  and  six  mouths  with  sweet 
odors,  and  with  other  things  for  the  purifying  of  the 
women;)  then  thus  came  every  maiden  unto  the  king; 
whatsoever  she  desired  was  given  her  to  go  with  her 
out  of  the  house  of  the  women  unto  the  king's  house. 
In  the  evening  she  went,  and  on  the  morrow  she  re 
turned  into  the  second  house  of  the  women,  to  the 
custody  of  Shaashgaz,  the  king's  chamberlain,  which 
kept  the  concubines:  she  came  in  unto  the  king  no 
more,  except  the  king  delighted  in  her,  and  that  she 
were  called  by  name. 

Now  when  the  turn  of  Esther,  the  daughter  of  Abi- 
hail  the  uncle  of  Mordecai,  who  had  taken  her  for  his 
daughter,  was  come  to  go  in  unto  the  king,  she  required 
nothing  but  what  Hegai  the  king's  chamberlain,  the 
keeper  of  the  women,  appointed.  And  Esther  obtained 
favor  in  the  sight  of  all  them  that  looked  upon  her. 
So  Esther  was  taken  unto  king  Ahasuerus  into  his 
house-royal  in  the  tenth  month,  which  is  the  month 
Tebeth,  in  the  seventh  year  of  his  reign.  And  the 
king  loved  Esther  above  all  the  women,  and  she  ob 
tained  grace  and  favor  in  his  sight  more  than  all  the 
virgins;  so  that  he  set  the  royal  crown  upon  her  head, 
and  made  her  queen  instead  of  Vashti.  Then  the  king 
made  a  great  feast  unto  all  his  princes  and  his  servants, 
even  Esther's  feast;  and  he  made  a  release  to  the 
provinces,  and  gave  gifts,  according  to  the  state  of  the 
king.  And  when  the  virgins  were  gathered  together 
the  second  time,  then  Mordecai  sat  in  the  king's  gate. 
Esther  had  not  yet  shewed  her  kindred,  nor  her  people, 


THE     KING'S     LIFE     SAVED.  45 

as  Mordecai  had  charged  her;  for  Esther  did  the  com 
mandment  of  Mordecai,  like  as  when  she  was  brought 
up  with  him. 

In  those  days,  while  Mordecai  sat  in  the  king's  gate, 
two  of  the  king's  chamberlains,  Bigthan  and  Teresh, 
of  those  which  kept  the  door,  were  wroth,  and  sought 
to  lay  hand  on  the  king  Ahasuerus.  And  the  thing 
was  known  to  Mordecai,  who  told  it  unto  Esther  the 
queen;  and  Esther  certified  the  king  thereof  in  Mor- 
decai's  name.  And  when  inquisition  was  made  of  the 
matter,  it  was  found  out;  therefore  they  were  both 
hanged  on  a  tree :  and  it  was  written  in  the  book  of  the 
Chronicles  before  the  king. 

After  these  things  did  king  Ahasuerus  promote 
Hainan  the  son  of  Hammedatha  the  Agagite,  and  ad 
vanced  him,  and  set  his  seat  above  all  the  princes  that 
were  with  him.  And  all  the  king's  servants  that  were 
in  the  king's  gate,  bowed,  and  reverenced  Haman;  for 
the  king  had  so  commanded  concerning  him.  But 
Mordecai  bowed  not,  nor  did  him  reverence.  Then 
the  king's  servants  which  were  in  the  king's  gate,  said 
unto*  Mordecai,  Why  transgresses!  thou  the  king's 
commandment  ?  Now  it  came  to  pass,  when  they 
spake  daily  unto  him,  and  he  hearkened  not  unto  them, 
that  they  told  Haman,  to  see  whether  Mordecai' s  mat 
ters  would  stand ;  for  he  had  told  them  that  he  was  a 
Jew.  And  when  Haman  saw  that  Mordecai  bowed 
not,  nor  did  him  reverence,  then  was  Haman  full  of 
wra;th.  And  he  thought  scorn  to  lay  hands  on  Mor 
decai  alone ;  for  they  had  shewed  him  the  people  of 
Mordecai;  wherefore  Haman  sought  to  destroy  all  the 
Jews  that  were  throughout  the  whole  kingdom  of 
Ahasuerus,  even  the  people  of  Mordecai. 


46         THE  HEBREW -PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

In  the  first  month,  (that  is,  the  month  Nison,)  in 
the  twelfth  year  of  king  Ahasuerus,  they  cast  Pur, 
that  is,  the  lot,  before  Hainan,  from  day  to  day,  and 
from  month  to  month,  to  the  twelfth  month,  that  is, 
the  month  Adar. 

And  Haman  said  unto  king  Ahasuerus,  There  is  a 
certain  people  scattered  abroad  and  dispersed  among 
the  people  in  all  the  provinces  of  thy  kingdom ;  and 
their  laws  are  diverse  from  all  people;  neither  keep 
they  the  king's  laws;  therefore  it  is  not  for  the  king's 
profit  to  suffer  them.  If  it  please  the  king,  let  it  be 
written  that  they  may  be  destroyed ;  and  I  will  pay 
ten  thousand  talents  of  silver  to  the  hands  of  those 
that  have  the  charge  of  the  business,  to  bring  it  into 
the  king's  treasuries.  And  the  king  took  his  ring 
from  his  hand,  and  gave  it  unto  Haman,  the  son  of 
Hammedatha  the  Agagite,  the  Jews'  enemy.  And  the 
king  said  unto  Haman,  The  silver  is  given  to  thee,  the 
people  also,  to  do  with  them  as  it  seemeth  good  to 
thee.  Then  were  the  king's  scribes  called  on  the  thir 
teenth  day  of  the  first  month,  and  there  was  written 
according  to  all  that  Haman  had  commanded  unto  the 
king's  lieutenants,  and  to  the  governors  that  were  over 
every  province,  and  to  the  rulers  of  every  people  of 
every  province,  according  to  the  writing  thereof,  and 
to  every  people  after  their  language ;  in  the  name  of 
king  Ahasuerus  was  it  written,  and  sealed  with  the 
king's  ring.  And  the  letters  were  sent  by  posts  into 
all  the  king's  provinces,  to  destroy,  to  kill,  and  to 
cause  to  perish,  all  Jews,  both  young  and  old,  little 
children  and  women,  in  one  day,  even  upon  the  thir 
teenth  day  of  the  twelfth  month,  which  is  the  month 


THE     MURDEROUS     DECREE.  47 

Adar,  and  to  take  the  spoil  of  them  for  a  prey.  The 
copy  of  the  writing  for  a  commandment  to  be  given  in 
every  province  was  published  unto  all  people,  that  they 
should  be  ready  against  that  day.  The  posts  went  out, 
being  hastened  by  the  king's  commandment,  and  the 
decree  was  given  in  Shushan  the  palace.  And  the 
king  and  Hainan  sat  down  to  drink,  but  the  city 
Shushan  was  perplexed. 

When  Mordecai  perceived  all  that  was  done,  Mor- 
decai  rent  his  clothes,  and  put  on  sackcloth  with  ashes, 
and  went  out  into  the  midst  of  the  city,  and  cried  with 
a  loud  and  a  bitter  cry ;  And  came  even  before  the 
king's  gate  :  for  none  might  enter  into  the  king's  gate 
clothed  with  sackcloth.  And  in  every  province  whith 
ersoever  the  king's  commandment  and  his  decree  came, 
there  was  great  mourning  among  the  Jews,  and  fast 
ing,  and  weeping,  and  wailing ;  and  many  lay  in  sack 
cloth  and  ashes. 

So  Esther's  maids  and  her  chamberlains  came  and 
told  it  her.  Then  was  the  queen  exceedingly  grieved; 
and  she  sent  raiment  to  clothe  Mordecai,  and  to  take 
away  his  sackcloth  from  him ;  but  he  received  it  not. 
Then  called  Esther  for  Hatach,  one  of  the  king's  cham 
berlains,  whom  he  had  appointed  to  attend  upon  her, 
and  gave  him  a  commandment  to  Mordecai,  to  know 
what  it  was,  and  why  it  was.  So  Hatach  went  forth 
to  Mordecai,  unto  the  street  of  the  city,  which  was  be 
fore  the  king's  gate.  And  Mordecai  told  him  of  all 
that  had  happened  unto  him,  and  of  the  sum  of  the 
money  that  Haman  had  promised  to  pay  to  the  king's 
treasuries  for  the  Jews,  to  destroy  them.  Also  he  gave 
him  the  copy  of  the  writing  of  the  decree  that  was 


48         THE  HEBREW -PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

given  at  Shushan  to  destroy  them,  to  shew  it  unto 
Esther,  and  to  declare  it  unto  her,  and  to  charge  her 
that  she  should  go  in  unto  the  king,  to  make  supplication 
unto  him,  and  to  make  request  before  him  for  her  peo 
ple.  And  Hatach  came  and  told  Esther  the  words  of 
Mordecai. 

Again  Esther  spake  unto  Hatach,  and  gave  him 
commandment  unto  Mordecai :  All  the  king's  servants, 
and  the  people  of  the  king's  provinces,  do  know,  that 
whosoever,  whether  man  or  woman,  shall  come  unto 
the  king  into  the  inner  court,  who  is  not  called,  there 
is  one  law  of  his  to  put  him  to  death,  except  such  to 
whom  the  king  shall  hold  out  the  golden  sceptre,  that 
he  may  live :  but  I  have  not  been  called  to  come  in 
unto  the  king  these  thirty  days.  And  they  told  to 
Mordecai  Esther's  words.  Then  Mordecai  commanded 
to  answer  Esther,  Think  not  with  thyself  that  thou  shalt 
escape  in  the  king's  house,  more  than  all  the  Jews. 
For  if  thou  altogether  holdest  thy  peace  at  this  time, 
then  shall  there  enlargement  and  deliverance  arise  to 
the  Jews  from  another  place  j  but  thou  and  thy  father's 
house  shall  be  destroyed;  and  who  knoweth,  whether 
thou  art  come  to  the  kingdom  for  such  a  time  as  this  ? 

Then  Esther  bade  them  return  Mordecai  this  an 
swer,  Go,  gather  together  all  the  Jews  that  are  present 
in  Shushan,  and  fast  ye  for  me,  and  neither  eat  nor 
drink  three  days,  night  or  day  :  I  also  and  my  maidens 
will  fast  likewise :  and  so  will  I  go  in  unto  the  king, 
which  is  not  according  to  the  law ;  and  if  I  perish,  I 
perish.  So  Mordecai  went  his  way,  and  did  according 
to  all  that  Esther  had  commanded  him. 

Now  it  came  to  pass  on  the  third  day,  that  Esther 


THE    QUEEN    INTERCEDING.  49 

put  on  her  royal  apparel,  and  stood  in  the  inner  court 
of  the  king's  house,  over  against  the  king's  house  ;  and 
the  king  sat  upon  his  royal  throne  in  the  royal  house, 
over  against  the  gate  of  the  house.  And  it  was  so, 
when  the  king  saw  Esther  the  queen  standing  in  the 
court,  that  she  obtained  favor  in  his  sight :  and  the 
king  held  out  to  Esther  the  golden  sceptre  that  was  in 
hisjhand.  So  Esther  drew  near,  and  touched  the  top 
of  the  sceptre.  Then  said  the  king  unto  her,  What 
wilt  thou,  queen  Esther  ?  and  what  is  thy  request  ?  it 
shall  be  even  given  thee  to  the  half  of  the  kingdom. 
And  Esther  answered,  If  it  seem  good  unto  the  king,  let 
the  king  and  Hainan  come  this  day  unto  the  banquet 
that  I  have  prepared  for  him.  •  Then  the  king  said, 
Cause  Haman  to  make  haste,  that  he  may  do  as  Esther 
hath  said.  So  the  king  and  Haman  came  to  the  ban 
quet  that  Esther  had  prepared. 

And  the  king  said  unto  Esther  at  the  banquet  of 
wine,  What  is  thy  petition  ?  and  it  shall'  be  granted 
thee  :  and  what  is  thy  request  ?  even  to  the  half  of  the 
kingdom  it  shall  be  performed.  Then  answered  Esther, 
and  said,  My  petition  and  my  request  is :  If  I  have 
found  favour  in  the  sight  of  the  king,  and  if  it  please 
the  king  to  grant  my  petition,  and  to  perform  my  re 
quest,  let  the  king  and  Haman  come  to  the  banquet 
that  I  shall  prepare  for  them,  and  I  will  do  to-morrow 
as  the  king  hath  said. 

Then  went  Haman  forth  that  day  joyful  and  with  a 
glad  heart :  but  when  Haman  saw  Mordecai  in  the 
king's  gate,  that  he  stood  not  up,  nor  moved  for  him, 
he  was  full  of  indignation  against  Mordecai.  Never 
theless,  Haman  refrained  himself:  and  when  he  came 
3 


50  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

home,  lie  sent  and  called  for  his  friends,  and  Zeresh  his 
wife.  And  Hainan  told  them  of  the  glory  of  his  riches, 
and  the  multitude  of  his  children,  and  all  the  things 
wherein  the  king  had  promoted  him,  and  how  he  had 
advanced  him  above  the  princes  and  servants  of  the 
king.  Hainan  said  moreover,  Yea,  Esther  the  queen 
did  let  no  man  come  in  with  the  king  unto  the  banquet 
that  she  had  prepared  but  myself;  and  to-morrow  atn  I 
invited  unto  her  also  with  the  king.  Yet  all  this  availeth 
me  nothing,  so  long  as  I  see  Mordecai  the  Jew  sitting 
at  the  king's  gate. 

Then  said  Zeresh  his  wife  and  all  his  friends  unto 
him,  Let  a  gallows  be  made  of  fifty  cubits  high,  and  to 
morrow  speak  thou  unto  the  king  that  Mordecai  may  be 
hanged  thereon  :  then  go  thou  in  merrily  with  the  king 
unto  the  banquet.  And  the  thing  pleased  Hainan ;  and 
he  caused  the  gallows  to  be  made. 

On  that  night  could  not  the  king  sleep,  and  he  com 
manded  to  bring  the  book  of  records  of  the  chronicles ; 
and  they  were  read  before  the  king.  And  it  was  found 
written,  that  Mordecai  had  told  of  Bigthana  and  Teresh, 
two  of  the  king's  chamberlains,  the  keepers  of  the 
door,  who  sought  to  lay  hand  on  the  king  Ahasuerus. 
And  the  king  said,  What  honour  and  dignity  hath  been 
done  to  Mordecai  for  this  ?  Then  said  the  king's  ser 
vants  that  ministered  unto  him,  There  is  nothing  done 
for  him.  And  the  king  said,  Who  is  in  the  court  ? 
(Now  Haman  was  come  into  the  outward 'court  of  the 
king's  house,  to  speak  unto  the  king  to  hang  Mordecai 
on  the  gallows  that  he  had  prepared  for  him.)  And 
the  king's  servants  said  unto  him,  Behold,  Haman 
standeth  in  the  court.  And  the  king  said,  Let  him 


THE    ROYAL    HONORING.  51 

come  in.  So  Hainan  came  in.  And  the  king  said 
unto  him,  What  shall  be  done  unto  the  man  whom  the 
king  delighteth  to  honour  ?  (Now  Haman  thought  in 
his  heart,  To  whom  would  the  king  delight  to  do  honour 
more  than  to  myself?)  And  Haman  answered  the 
king,  For  the  man  whom  the  king  delighteth  to  honour, 
Let  the  royal  apparel  be  brought  which  the  king  useth 
to  wear,  and  the  horse  that  the  king  rideth  upon,  and 
the  crown-royal  which  is  set  upon  his  head :  And  let 
this  apparel  and  horse  be  delivered  to  the  hand  of  one 
of  the  king's  most  noble  princes,  that  they  may  array 
the  man  withal  whom  the  king  delighteth  to  honour, 
and  bring  him  on  horseback  through  the  street  of  the 
city,  and  proclaim  before  him,  Thus  shall  it  be  done  to 
the  man  whom  the  king  delighteth  to  honour.  Then 
the  king  said  to  Hainan,  Make  haste,  and  take  the  ap 
parel  and  the  horse,  as  thou  hast  said,  and  do  even  so  to 
Mordecai  the  Jew,  that  sitteth  at  the  king's  gate  :  let 
nothing  fail  of  all  that  thou  hast  spoken.  Then  took 
Haman  the  apparel  and  the  horse,  and  arrayed  Morde 
cai,  arid  brought  him  on  horseback  through  the  street 
of  the  city,  and  proclaimed  before  him,  Thus  shall  it 
be  done  unto  the  man  whom  the  king  delighteth  to 
honour. 

And  Mordecai  came  again  to  the  king's  gate.  But 
Haman  hasted  to  his  house  mourning,  and  having  his 
head  covered.  And  Haman  told  Zeresh  his  wife  and 
all  his  friends  every  thing  that  had  befallen  him.  Then 
said  his  wise  men  and  Zeresh  his  wife  unto  him,  If 
Mordecai  be  of  the  seed  of  the  Jews,  before  whom  thou 
hast  begun  to  fall,  thou  shalt  not  prevail  against  him, 
but  shalt  surely  fall  before  him.  And  while  they  were 
SA 


52  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

yet  talking  with  him,  came  the  king's  chamberlains, 
and  hasted  to  bring  Hainan  unto  the  banquet  that 
Esther  had  prepared. 

So  the  king  and  Haman  caine  to  banquet  with  Esther 
the  queen.  And  the  king  said  again  unto  Esther 
on  the  second  day  of  the  banquet  of  wine,  What  is 
thy  petition,  queen  Esther?  and  it  shall  be  granted 
thee:  and  what  is  thy  request?  and  it  shall  be  per 
formed,  even  to  the  half  of  the  kingdom.  Then  Es 
ther  the  queen  answered  and  said,  If  I  have  found 
favor  in  thy  sight,  0  king,  and  if  it  please  the  king, 
let  my  life  be  given  me  at  my  petition,  and  my  people 
at  my  request :  For  we  are  sold,  I  and  my  people,  to 
be  destroyed,  to  be  slain,  and  to  perish.  But  if  we 
had  been  sold  for  bondmen  and  bondwomen,  I  had  held 
my  tongue,  although  the  enemy  could  not  countervail 
the  king's  damage. 

Then  the  king  Ahasuerus  answered  and  said  unto 
Esther  the  queen,  Who  is  he,  and  where  is  he,  that 
durst  presume  in  his  heart  to  do  so  ?  And  Esther  said, 
The  adversary  and  enemy  is  this  wicked  Haman.  Then 
Haman  was  afraid  before  the  king  and  the  queen. 

And  the  king  arising  from  the  banquet  of  wine  in 
his  wrath  went  into  the  palace  garden :  and  Haman 
stood  up  to  make  request  for  his  life  to  Esther  the 
queen :  for  he  saw  that  there  was  evil  determined 
against  him  by  the  king.  Then  the  king  returned  out 
of  the  palace  garden  into  the  place  of  the  banquet  of 
wine;  and  Hainan  was  fallen  upon  the  bed  whereon 
Esther  was.  Then  said  the  king,  Will  he  force  the 
queen  also  before  me  in  the  house  ?  As  the  word  went 
out  of  the  king's  mouth,  they  covered  Hainan's  face. 


HAMAN'S  DESTRUCTION.  53 

And  Harbonah,  one  of  the  chamberlains,  said  before 
the  king,  Behold  also  the  gallows  fifty  cubits  high, 
which  Hainan  had  made  for  Mordecai,  who  had  spoken 
good  for  the  king,  standeth  in  the  house  of  Haman. 
Then  the  king  said,  Hang  him  thereon.  So  they 
hanged  Haman  on  the  gallows  that  he  had  prepared 
for  Mordecai.  Then  was  the  king's  wrath  pacified. 

On  that  day  did  the  king  Ahasuerus  give  the  house 
of  Haman  the  Jews'  enemy  unto  Esther  the  queen. 
And  Mordecai  came  before  the  king;  for  Esther  had 
told  what  he  was  unto  her.  And  the  king  took  off  his 
ring,  which  he  had  taken  from  Haman,  and  gave  it 
•  unto  Mordecai.  And  Esther  set  Mordecai  over  the 
house  of  Hainan. 

And  Esther  spake  yet  again  before  the  king,  and 
fell  down  at  his  feet,  and  besought  him  with  tears  to 
put  away  the  mischief  of  Haman  the  Agagite,  and  his 
device  that  he  had  devised  against  the  Jews.  Then 
the  king  held  out  the  golden  sceptre  toward  Esther. 
So  Esther  arose,  and  stood  before  the  king.  And  said, 
If  it  please  the  king,  and  if  I  have  found  favor  in  his 
sight,  and  the  thing  seem  right  before  the  king,  and  I 
be  pleasing  in  his  eyes,  let  it  be  written  to  reverse  the 
letters  devised  by  Haman  the  son  of  Hammedatha  the 
Agagite,  which  he  wrote  to  destroy  the  Jews  which 
are  in  all  the  king's  provinces  :  For  how  can  I  endure 
to  see  the  evil  that  shall  come  unto  my  people  ?  or  how 
can  I  endure  to  see  the  destruction  of  my  kindred  ? 

Then  the  king  Ahasuerus  said  unto  Esther  the  queen 
and  to  Mordecai  the  Jew,  Behold,  I  have  given  Esther 
the  house  of  Hainan,  and  him  they  have  hanged  upon 
the  gallows,  because  he  laid  his  hand  upon  the  Jews. 


54  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

"Write  ye  also  for  the  Jews,  as  it  liketli  you,  in  the 
king's  name,  and  seal  it  with  the  king's  ring :  for  the 
writing  which  is  written  in  the  king's  name,  and  sealed 
with  the  king's  ring,  may  no  man  reverse.  Then  were 
the  king's  scribes  called  at  that  time  in  the  third  month, 
that  is,  the  month  Sivan,  on  the  three  and  twentieth 
day  thereof;  and  it  was  written  according  to  all  that 
Mordecai  commanded  unto  the  Jews,  and  to  the  lieu 
tenants,  and  the  deputies  and  rulers  of  the  provinces 
which  are  from  India  unto  Ethiopia,  an  hundred  twenty 
and  seven  provinces,  unto  every  province  according  to 
the  writing  thereof,  and  unto  every  people  after  their 
language,  and  to  the  Jews  according  to  their  writing,  and 
according  to  their  language.  And  he  wrote  in  the  king 
Ahasuerus'  name,  and  sealed  it  with  the  king's  ring,  and 
sent  letters  by  posts  on  horseback,  and  riders  on  mules, 
camels,  and  young  dromedaries :  Wherein  the  king 
granted  the  Jews  which  were  in  every  city  to  gather 
themselves  together,  and  to  stand  for  their  life,  to  de 
stroy,  to  slay,  and  to  cause  to  perish,  all  the  power  of 
the  people  and  province  that  would  assault  them,  both 
little  ones  and  women,  and  to  take  the  spoil  of  them  for 
a  prey.  Upon  one  day  in  all  the  provinces  of  king 
Ahasuerus,  namely,  upon  the  thirteenth  day  of  the 
twelfth  month,  which  is  the  month  Adar.  The  copy 
of  the  writing  for  a  commandment  to  be  given  in  every 
province  was  published  unto  all  people,  and  that  the 
Jews  should  be  ready  against  that  day  to  avenge  them 
selves  on  their  enemies.  So  the  posts  that  rode  upon 
mules  and  camels  went  out,  being  hastened  and  pressed 
on  by  the  king's  commandment.  And  the  decree  was 
given  at  Shushan  the  palace. 


THE   JOYFUL   TIDINGS.  55 

And  Mordecai  went  out  from  the  presence  of  the 
king  in  royal  apparel  of  blue  and  white,  and  with  a 
great  crown  of  gold,  and  with  a  garment  of  fine  linen 
and  purple :  and  the  city  of  Sushan  rejoiced  and  was 
glad.  The  Jews  had  light,  and  gladness,  and  joy,  and 
honor.  And  in  every  province,  and  in  every  city, 
withersoever  the  king's  commandment  and  his  decree 
came,  the  Jews  had  joy  and  gladness,  a  feast  and  a  good 
day.  And  many  of  the  people  of  the  land  became 
Jews;  for  the  fear  of  the  Jews  fell  upon  them. 

Now  in  the  twelfth  month,  that  is,  the  month  Adar, 
on  the  thirteenth  day  of  the  same,  when  the  king's 
commandment  and  his  decree  drew  near  to  be  put  in 
execution,  in  the  day  that  the  enemies  of  the  Jews 
hoped  to  have  power  t  over  them,  (though  it  was  turned 
to  the  contrary,  that  the  Jews  had  rule  over  them  that 
hated  them ;)  The  Jews  gathered  themselves  together 
in  their  cities  throughout  all  the  provinces  of  the  king 
Ahasuerus,  to  lay  hand  on  such  as  sought  their  hurt : 
and  no  man  could  withstand  them,  for  the  fear  of  them 
fell  upon  all  people.  And  all  the  rulers  of  the  prov 
inces,  and  the  lieutenants,  and  the  deputies,  and  offi 
cers  of  the  king  helped  the  Jews ;  because  the  fear  of 
Mordecai  fell  upon  them.  For  Mordecai  was  great  in 
the  king's  house,  and  his  fame  went  out  throughout  all 
the  provinces :  for  this  man  Mordecai  waxed  greater 
and  greater.  Thus  the  Jews  smote  all  their  enemies 
with  the  stroke  of  the  sword,  and  slaughter,  and  de 
struction,  and  did  what  they  would  unto  those  that 
hated  them.  And  in  Shushan  the  palace  the  Jews 
slew  and  destroyed  five  hundred  men.  And  Parshan- 
datha,  and  Dalphon,  and  Aspatha,  and  Poratha,  and 


56  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

Adalia,  and  Aridatha,  and  Parmashta,  and  Arisai,  and 
Aridai  and  Vajezatha,  the  ten  sons  of  Hainan  the  son 
ofHammedatha,  the  enemy  of  the  Jews,  slew  they ; 
but  on  the  spoil  laid  they  not  their  hand.-  On  that  day 
the  number  of  those  that  were  slain  in  Shushan  the 
palace  was  brought  before  the  king. 

And  the  king  said  unto  Esther  the  queen,  The  Jews 
have  slain  and  destroyed  five  hundred  men  in  Shushan 
the  palace,  and  the  ten  sons  of  Hainan ;  what  have 
they  done  in  the  rest  of  the  king's  provinces  ?  Now 
what  is  thy  petition  ?  and  it  shall  be  granted  thee  :  or 
what  is  thy  request  further  ?  and  it  shall  be  done. 
Then  said  Esther,  if  it  please  the  king,  let  it  be  granted 
the  Jews  which  are  in  Shushan  to  do  to-morrow  also 
according  unto  this  day's  decree,  and  let  Hainan's  ten 
sons  be  hanged  upon  the  gallows.  And  the  king  com 
manded  it  so  to  be  done  :  and  the  decree  was  given  at 
Shushan;  and  they  hanged  Hainan's  ten  sons.  For 
the  Jews  that  were  in  Shushan  gathered  themselves 
together  on  the  fourteenth  day  also  of  the  month  Adar, 
and  slew  three  hundred  men  at  Shushan  ;  but  on  the 
prey  they  laid  not  their  hand.  But  the  other  Jews 
that  were  in  the  king's  provinces  gathered  themselves 
together,  and  stood  for  their  lives,  and  had  rest  from 
their  enemies,  and  slew  of  their  foes  seventy  and  five 
thousand,  but  they  laid  not  their  hands  on  the  prey. 
On  the  thirteenth  day  of  the  month  Adar ;  and  on  the 
fourteenth  day  of  the  same  rested  they,  and  made  it  a 
day  of  feasting  and  gladness.  But  the  Jews  that  were 
at  Shushan  assembled  together  on  the  thirteenth  day 
thereof,  and  on  the  fourteenth  thereof;  and  on  the 
fifteenth  day  of  the  same  they  rested,  and  made  it  a 


THE    FEAST   ORDAINED.  57 

day  of  feasting  and  gladness.  Therefore  the  Jews  of 
the  villages,  that  dwelt  in  the  unwalled  towns,  made 
the  fourteenth  day  of  the  month  Adar  a  day  of  glad 
ness  and  feasting,  and  a  good  day,  and  of  sending  por 
tions  one  to  another. 

And  Mordecai  wrote  these  things,  and  sent  letters 
unto  all  the  Jews  that  were  in  all  the  provinces  of  the 
king  Ahasuerus,  both  nigh  and  far,  to  establish  this 
among  them,  that  they  should  keep  the  fourteenth  day 
of  the  month  Adar,  and  the  fifteenth  day  of  the  same, 
yearly,  as  the  days  wherein  the  Jews  rested  from  their 
enemies,  and  the  month  which  was  turned  unto  them 
from  sorrow  to  joy,  and  from  mourning  into  a  good  day  : 
that  they  should  make  them  days  of  feasting  and  joy, 
and  of  sending  portions  one  to  another,  and  gifts  to  the 
poor.  And  the  Jews  undertook  to  do  as  they  had  be 
gun,  and  as  Mordecai  had  written  unto  them;  because 
Haman,  the  son  of  Hammedatha,  the  Agagite,  the 
the  enemy  of  all  the  Jews,  had  devised  against  the 
Jews  to  destroy  them,  and  had  cast  Pur,  that  is,  the 
lot,  to  consume  them,  and  to  destroy  them ;  but  when 
Esther  came  before  the  king,  he  commanded  by  letters 
that  his  wicked  device,  which  he  devised  against  the 
Jews,  should  return  upon  his  own  head,  and  that  he 
and  his  sons  should  be  hanged  on  the  gallows.  Where 
fore  they  called  these  days  Purim,  after  the  name  of 
Pur.  Therefore  for  all  the  words  of  this  letter,  and  of 
that  which  they  had  seen  concerning  this  matter,  and 
which  had  come  unto  them,  the  Jews  ordained,  and 
took  upon  them,  and  upon  their  seed,  and  upon  all 
such  as  joined  themselves  unto  them,  so  as  it  should 
not  fail,  that  they  would  keep  these  two  days  accord- 
SB 


58  THE     HEBREW-  PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

ing  to  their  writing,  and  according  to  their  appointed 
time  every  year;  and  that  these  days  should  be  remem 
bered  and  kept  throughout  every  generation,  every 
family,  every  province,  and  every  city ;  and  that  these 
days  of  Purim  should  not  fail  from  among  the  Jews, 
nor  the  memorial  of  them  perish  from  their  seed. 
Then  Esther  the  queen,  the  daughter  of  Abihail,  and 
Mordecai  the  Jew,  wrote  with  all  authority,  to  confirm 
the  second  letter  of  Purim.  And  he  sent  the  letters 
unto  all  the  Jews,  to  the  hundred  twenty  and  seven 

provinces  of  the  kingdom  of  Ahasuerus,  with  words  of 
peace  and  truth,  to  confirm  these  days  of  Purim  in  their 
times  appointed,  according  as  Mordecai  the  Jew  and 
Esther  the  queen  had  enjoined  them,  and  as  they  had 
decreed  for  themselves  and  for  their  seed,  the  matters 
of  the  fastings  and  their  cry.  And  the  decree  of  Es 
ther  confirmed  these  matters  of  Purim ;  and  it  was 
written  in  the  book. 

And  the  king  Ahasuerus  laid  a  tribute  upon  the  land, 
and  upon  the  isles  of  the  sea.  And  all  the  acts  of  his 
power  and  of  his  might,  and  the  declaration  of  the  great 
ness  of  Mordecai,  whereunto  the  king  advanced  him, 
are  they  not  written  in  the  book  of  the  Chronicles  of 
the  kings  of  Media  and  Persia?  For  Mordecai  the 
Jew  was  next  unto  king  Ahasuerus,  and  great  among 
the  Jews,  and  accepted  of  the  multitude  of  his  breth 
ren,  seeking  the  wealth  of  his  people,  and  speaking 
peace  to  all  his  seed. 


CHAPTER  III. 


THESE    HEBREW   RECORDS    CREDIBLE. 


Precious  Bible ! 


"When  yonder  spheres  sublime 

Pealed  their  first  notes  to  sound  the  march  of  time, 
Thy  joyous  youth  began:  but  not  to  fade — 
When  all  the  sister  planets  have  decayed ; 
When  wrapt  in  flames  the  realms  of  ether  glow, 
And  Heaven's  last  thunder  shakes  the  world  below; 
Thou,  pure,  unsoiled,  shalt  o'er  the  ruins  smile !" 


IT  is  a  remark  of  the  late  venerable  Dr.  Alexander 
that,  a  there  never  has  existed  upon  earth  a  nation  ^-^ 

whose  history  is  so  deserving  of  our  attention  as  that  of / 

the  Jews/'  This  is  certainly  true,  for  they  are  and 
always  have  been  a  peculiar  people.  An  extraordinary 
providence  has  always  been  exercised  toward  them. 

Up  to  the  carrying  away  into  the  Babylonish  cap 
tivity,  the  history  of  the  ancient  Jews  is  contained  in 
their  sacred  books,  but  subsequent  to  that  event,  we 
have  nothing  concerning  them  but  fragments ;  and  of*. 
these  the  Book  of  Esther  is  one  of  the  most  valuable 
During  the  period  of  their  history  between  their  cap 
tivity  and  the  coming  of  Christ,  many  important  prophe 
cies  were  fulfilled;  and  in  the  days  of  Ezra,  Nehemiah 


60  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

/'and  Esther,  we  find  the  origin  of  the  moral  condition 
and  of  the  political  and  ecclesiastical  state  of  things 

•""  that  prevailed  when  Christ  was  born.  A  knowledge  of 
Hebrew  history  for  five  hundred  years  immediately 
preceding  the  Advent  is  necessary  to  understand  the 
New  Testament. 

It  is  not,  then,  merely  because  the  Book  of  Esther 
is  an  interesting  and  true  picture  of  the  Persian  court 
for  thousands  of  years,  but  also  because  it  is  a  chapter — 
a  very  remarkable  chapter — of  God's  dealings  with  his 
people,  and  of  his  care  for  his  church,  that  we  invite 
you  to  study  it.  But  our  Chronicles  of  Ahasuerus, 
Esther  and  Mordecai,  are  they  of  canonical  authority? 
I  answer,  we  have  the  same  authority  for  believing  that 
the  Book  of  Esther  belongs  to  the  Hebrew  canon  that 
we  have  for  Ezra,  Nehemiah,  or  any  of  their  historical 
books.  It  is  found  in  Hebrew  just  as  we  find  them. 
For  although  several  of  the  proper  names  of  this  book 
are  of  Persian  origin,  there  is  scarcely  a  doubt  among 
scholars  that  it  was  written  originally  in  Hebrew. 
Foreign  names  are  found  in  the  writings  of  Moses  and 
in  Daniel,  as  well  as  in  other  parts  of  the  Old  Testa. 
ment,  but  no  one  denies  on  that  account  that  Hebrew 
is  their  original.  The  Book  of  Esther  is  not  found  in 
Arabic,  nor  in  any  other  ancient  Oriental  language,  but 
the  Hebrew,  Syriac  and  Chaldee.  Ancient  copies  dif 
fering  more  or  less  from  each  other,  and  from  the  He 
brew  text,  are  found  in  Greek  and  Latin.  The  Chaldee 
'copy,  as  given  in  the  London  Polyglott,  contains  five 
times  more  than  the  Hebrew  text,  but  the  book,  as  we 
eive  it,  has  always  been  considered  as  a  part  of  the 
canon  of  their  holy  writings  by  the  Jews.  And  as 


THE    AUTHOR    OF   ESTHER.  61 

they  were  remarkably  careful  to  preserve  their  sacred 
writings,  and  jealous  of  any  change  or  interpolation, 
the  presumption  is  very  strong  in  favor  of  the  authen 
ticity  of  this  book.  The  ancient  Jews  were  made  the 
keepers  of  the  Oracles  of  God,  and  if  they  had  not  been 
true  to  this  trust,  our  Lord  and  his  apostles  would  cer 
tainly  have  charged  them  with  neglect  or  corruption.  •' 
But  this  they  did  not  do.  Our  Lord  reproved  them 
for  misinterpreting  and  for  rendering  of  none  effect  the 
commandments  of  God  by  their  traditions,  but  never 
with  having  been  unfaithful  in  preserving  the  sacred 
text. 

There  is  some  difference  of  opinion,  both  among  an 
cient  and  modern  writers,  as  to  the  author  of  the 
Megilloth  Esther.  A  majority,  both  of  Hebrew  and 
Christian  interpreters,  both  ancient  and  modern,  ascribe 
it  to  Mordecai.  The  Rabbins  generally,  and  Clemens  of 
Alexandria,  tell  us  that  Mordecai  was  its  author.  Some 
say  it  was  composed  by  the  great  Synagogue.  Others 
have  attributed  it  to  the  high  priest  Joachim.  This  was 
the  opinion  of  Philo,  the  Jew.  Augustine  thinks  it 
was  written  by  Ezra.*  A  few  think  that  ix:  20,  23, 
prove  it  to  have  been  the  joint  composition  of  Esther -^I— 
and  Mordecai;  but  this  reference  is  not  conclusive 
proof  of  this,  for  the  passage  seems  to  speak,  not  of 
this  memoir  or  history  of  Esther,  but  of  the  circular 
letters  that  were  sent  throughout  the  empire,  or,  at  least, 
of  them  chiefly. 

Some  Christian  writers  have  doubted  its  claim  to  a 
place  among  canonical  Scriptures;  but  their  objections 
do  not  merit  a  labored  reply.  It  may  be  true  there  is 
no  prophecy  in  this  book  —  that  it  is  not  quoted  in  the 

*De  Civ.  Dei.,  lib.  xviii:  C.  36. 


62  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

New  Testament — that  there  is  no  mention  in  it  of  any 
of  the  names  or  attributes  of  Jehovah,  nor  even  of 
prayer  or  sacrifices  to  Him.  But  the  singular  fact  that 
the  name  of  God  does  not  occur  in  the  book,  does  not 
seem  to  me  to  have  authorized  some  of  the  fathers  to 
reject  it  from  the  canon.  It  is  certainly  one  of  the 
4  most  striking  illustrations  of  a  superintending  Provi 
dence  to  be  found  in  any  of  the  sacred  narratives.  And 
may  not  this  omission  have  been  designed  ?  Perhaps 
the  purpose  was  to  prove  to  the  Gentiles  the  fact  that 
/  the  God  of  the  Jews  was  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  the 
universe,  without  exciting  their  prejudices  by  making 

I a  display  of  His  name.     The  narrative  tells  its  own 

story,  and  carries  with  it  its  own  evidences.  It  implies 
clearly  and  necessarily  the  existence  and  presence  of 
the  God  of  Abraham.  The  Hebrews  have  never  denied 
its  authenticity.  They  esteem  it  everywhere,  I  believe, 
even  to  this  day,  as  one  of  the  best  of  their  holy 
writings.  They  call  it,  by  way  of  eminence,  Meg 
that  is,  THE  jroLUME.  And  some  of  them  believe 
^tliat  whatever  destruction  may  attend  their  other  sa 
cred  writings,  that  the  Pentatuch  and  the  Megittoth 
\  Esther  will  always  be  preserved  by  a  special  Providence. 
They  have  always  placed  it  on  a  level  with  the  law  of 
Moses.  The  Jewish  celebration  of  Purim,  to  com 
memorate  their  deliverance  from  the  massacre  intended 
for  them  by  Hainan,  historically  proven  to  have  had  its 
rise  at  that  time ;  and  its  observance,  from  that  time  to 
the  present  day,  by  the  Jews  in  every  part  of  the  world, 
is  one  of  the  simplest  and  strongest  proofs  that  can  be 
given  of  the  truthfulness  of  its  historical  statements. 
It  were  certainly  difficult  to  show  how  a  national  fes- 


THE   APOCRYPHAL    BOOKS.  63 

tival  like  Purim  could  have  arisen,  if  it  does  not  per 
petuate  a  reality.     Historically,  we  have  just  as  much 
proof  of  the  truth  of  the  history  of  the  Book  of  Esther, 
as  we  have  of  the  truth  of  the  subject-matters  com 
memorated  in  the  anniversary  of  the  American  Decla 
ration  of  Independence.     There  is  nothing  in  the  his 
tory  itself  that  shows  it  to  be  a  fiction,  or  a  mere  inven 
tion  of  a  novel  writer.     Queen  Esther's  history  is  an 
oriental  romance,  and  yet  it  is  a  literal  truthful  history. 
And  as  Mordecai  was  a  man  of  God,  and  a  principal 
actor  in  the  history  which  this  book  records,  and  in 
every  way  a  fit  person  to  write  it,  I  see  no  reason  to 
hesitate  in  ascribing  it  to  his  pen.     It  may  have  been- 
revised  by  Ezra.     The  six  additional  chapters  found  in 
the  Vulgate,  and  received  as   canonical  by  the   Greek 
/  and  Latin  churches,  are  not  extant  in  Hebrew,  nor  do 
they  contain  internal  evidence  of  authenticity,  and  con- 
\   sequently  they  are  not  received  by  Protestants  as  a  part 
\  of  the  sacred   canon.     They  seem  to  have  been  com- 
)  piled  by  Hellenistic  Jews,  and  are  to  be  considered  of 
/  no  more  value  or  authority  than  so  many  pages  of  Philo 
(  Judseus  or  Josephus.     The  Apocryphal  books,  though 
not  admitted  by  us  to  a  place  among  the  Holy  writings 
which  we  believe  were  given  by  Divine  Inspiration,  are 
nevertheless  worthy  of  our  attention.     They  are  gen 
erally  supposed  to  be  the  productions  of  Alexandrian 
Jews.     As  ancient  Jewish  documents  before  the  coming 
of  Christ, — as  a  collection  of  traditions  or  fragments  of 
history,  and  of  lessons  on  prudence  and  morality,  and 
sometimes  of  piety,  they  "  are  all  curious,  and  some  of 
them  extremely  valuable/'     They  are  particularly  use 
ful  as  helps  to  elucidate  the  phraseology  of  the  New 
Testament. 


64  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

Bat  may  we  rely  on  the  facts  stated  in  the  Megilloth 
Esther  ?  And  are  we  able  to  understand  it  ?  Is  it  an 
intelligible  history?  Happily  for  us,  we  have  various 
independent  and  numerous  sources  from  whence  to  draw 
materials  by  which  to  satisfy  ourselves  that  the  Megil 
loth  Esther  is  a  true  narrative,  and  by  which  to  show 
that  it  is  intelligible  to  us.  In  the  first  place,  we  have 
the  ancient  versions.  It  is  not  necessary  here  to  des 
cribe  at  length  the  ancient  versions  that  have  been 
made  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  but  as  our  pages  are  not 
designed  for  learned  or  professional  readers,  it  seems 
to  be  necessary  to  give  a  brief  notice  of  those  versions 
that  are  referred  to  in  this  work  for  illustrations  and 
proofs  of  the  narrative.  The  chief  versions  to  which 
we  refer,  are  the  Septuagint,  Vulgate,  Chaldee  Ver 
sions,  or  Targums,  and  the  Talmud. 

After  the  Hebrew  ceased  to  be  a  living  tongue,  and 
especially  after  the  spread  of  Christianity,  both  Jews 
and  Christians  desired  translations  of  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures  into  the  prevailing  languages,  and  these 
translations,  of  course,  soon  assumed  the  place  of  the 
original  Hebrew  text.  Some  of  these  versions  were 
made  directly  from  the  Hebrew,  others  were  versions 
from  versions.  Thus  the  Septuagint  or  Alexandrine 
version  was  made  directly  from  the  Hebrew  text ;  but 
the  Latin  Christians  made  their  version  from  the  Sep 
tuagint,  and,  in  the  fourth  century,  that  was  superseded 
by  the  Vulgate,  which  is  Jerome's  version  of  the  Sep 
tuagint  using  the  Itala  as  the  basis. 

The  Septuagint  is  the  work  of  some  seventy  learned 
Jews,  who,  by  order  of  Ptolemy  Philadelphus,  about 
280  B.  C.;  translated  the  Hebrew,  from  the  best  man- 


THE   OLD    VERSIONS.  65 

uscript  text  that  could  be  obtained,  into  the  Greek 
and  adding  some  from  Greek  manuscripts  not  found  in 
Hebrew.  The  immediate  object  is  said  to  have  been 
to  obtain  a  good  copy  of  the  writings  of  Moses,  for  the 
celebrated  Alexandrine  Library. 

The  Latin  Bible,  known  as  the  Vulgate,  is  so  called, 
because  it  was  made  from  the  Greek,  which  was  then 
the  vulgata,  common  or  popular  tongue.  The  Vulgate 
was  the  first  book  ever  printed,  and,  by  the  decree  of 
the  Council  of  Trent,  in  1545,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  is 
the  authorized  standard  version  of  the  Catholic  Church. 
The  first  copy  with  a  date  was  printed  at  Mayence, 
1462. 

The  Targums,  or  Chaldee  versions,  arc  allowed  to 
be  the  works  of  Hebrews,  living  in  the  Holy  Land  and 
in  Babylon,  at  different  times,  from  about  150  years 
before  Christ  to  the  eighth  or  ninth  century  of  our  era. 
The  name  Targum  is  from  the  Chaldee,  to  translate, 
and  means  translation.  They  are  sometimes,  how 
ever,  but  improperly,  called  paraphrases,  for  there 
is  nothing  about  them  paraphrastic.  Some  of  our 
Lord's  quotations  from  the  Holy  Scriptures  seem  to 
have  been  made  from  the  Chaldee.  The  more  an 
cient  Targums  are  among  the  best  translations  that 
have  been  made.  The  latter  are  not  of  so  much  value. 
There  arc  eleven  of  them  in  all,  the  chief  of  which  are, 
the  Targurn  of  Onkelos,  of  Jonathan,  of  Pseudo  Jon 
athan,  and  of  Jerusalem. 

The  Talmud  is  a  Hebrew  work,  containing  the  doc 
trines,  religion  and  morality  of  the  Jews.  Its  author 
ity  among  them  is  equal  to  or  greater  than  the  Hebrew 
Scriptures.  The  name  is  from  lamad,  to  teach,  and 


66  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

means  pre-eminently  their  traditional  doctrines.  There 
are  two  works  known  by  this  name  :  The  Talmud  of 
Jerusalem,  and  the  Talmud  of  Babylon.  The  Talmud 
of  Jerusalem  is  said  to  be  the  work  of  Rabbi  Jochanan, 
about  800,  A.  D.,  and  was  designed  for  the  Jews  of 
Judea.  It  is  composed  of  two  parts,  the  Mislma  and 
the  Gemara.  The  Mislma  is  a  collection  of  traditions 
gathered  by  the  doctors  and  put  together  in  this  body, 
lest  they  should  be  lost.  The  Gemara  again  is  a  col 
lection  of  illustrations  of  the  Mishna,  or  a  supplemental 
commentary  upon  it.  These  two  constitute  the  Tal 
mud  of  Jerusalem.  The  Talmud  of  Babylon  consists 
of  the  Mishna  of  Judah  the  holy,  and  of  a  Gemara, 
collected  or  composed  about  400,  A.  D.,  as  is  believed 
by  Habbi  Asa  of  Babylon.  It  was  designed  chiefly  for 
the  Jews  in  Babylon  and  on  the  Euphrates.  I  believe 
this  Talmud  is  generally  preferred  to  that  of  Jerusa 
lem.  I  have  heard  that  it  is  a  common  saying  among 
the  Hebrews,  that  the  Bible  is  water,  the  Mishna  wine, 
and  the  Gemara  hypocistis.  They  say  the  Talmud 
contains  the  things  taught  to  Moses  by  God  himself, 
who  taught  them  to  Aaron  and  his  sons,  and  they  to 
the  Elders  of  Israel,  and  they  to  the  prophets  and  the 
members  of  the  great  Synagogue,  who  communicated 
them  to  the  Rabbis,  who  composed  the  Mishna  and 
Gemara.  Home  on  the  Scriptures  and  Bible  Dictiona 
ries,  will  enable  you  to  pursue  this  study,  if  you  are  so 
inclined.  The  works  also  of  Pliilo  Judaus,  a  noble 
Jew  of  Alexandria,  about  A.  D.  40,  contain  many 
curious  treatises  that  are  of  much  importance  in  illus 
trating  the  language,  phraseology  and  sentiment  of  the 
New  Testament.  The  writings  of  Joscphus,  a  learned 


SOURCES    OF   PERSIAN    HISTORY.  67 

Jew  of  the  priestly  line  and  of  royal  descent,  are  too 
well  known  to  need  any  description.  He  was  born 
about  thirty  years  after  the  Advent,  and  was  alive  in  A. 
D.  96,  but  it  is  not  known  when  he  died.  Though  I  be 
lieve  Josephus  is  not  a  popular  author  among  the  Jews, 
and  has  been  often  severely  criticised,  still  his  works 
must  be  regarded  as  of  great  value  to  Biblical  students. 

Secondly.  All  the  sources  of  Persian  history  now 
opened  to  scholars  are  found  to  corroborate  the  Megil- 
loth  Esther  in  every  possible  way.  These  sources,  so 
far  as  the  period  of  our  history  is  concerned,  may  be 
said  to  consist  of  the  old  traditions  of  Persia  embodied 
in  the  poets  we  have  named,  and  the  works  of  Herodo 
tus,  Xenophon,  Ctesias,  Arrian,  Josephus,  and  Strabo; 
and  the  fragments  incidentally  recorded  in  the  sacred 
books  of  the  Jews.  Xenophon,  Ctesias  and  Arrian 
were  eye-witnesses  of  the  last  days  of  the  Persian  em 
pire.  Ctesias  was  a  resident  of  the  Court  of  Cyrus  the 
Younger,  but  all  that  we  have  of  the  twenty-three  books 
which  he  wrote  then,  are  some  fragments  preserved  in 
Photius.  He  was  a  medical  man.  The  most  reliable 
sources  are  the  Oriental  discoveries  of  our  own  day, 
especially  for  information  concerning  the  sacred  scrip 
tures. 

In  the  Asiatic  Journal,  xii.  vol.,  Major  Rawlinson 
has  given  a  most  interesting  memoir  of  the  Persian  In 
scriptions  from  Behistun.  The  Major,  now  Sir  Henry 
Kawlinson,  has,  in  public  lectures  and  by  drawings  and 
numerous  models,  taken  from  the  sculptures  now  in  the 
British  Museum,  repeatedly  pledged  himself  to  adduce 
by  most  abundant  coincidence  the  authenticity  of  the 
Holy  Writings.  He  says  the  Inscriptions  go  back  to- 


68  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

about  2,000  years  before  Christ,  and  that  from  every 
part  of  Assyria  a  multitude  of  inscriptions  have  been 
deciphered,  which  confirm  in  the  minutest  details  the 
pages  of  Scripture,  and  explain  many  passages  hitherto 
obscure. 

These  readings  are  particularly  interesting  as  to  the 
signification  and  derivation  of  names,  and  also  as  to 
"  The  earliest  connection  of  the  Chaldees  and  Indians, 
and  the  Babylonian  mythology;  the  ethnology  and  geog 
raphy  of  the  Assyrians;  the  historical  records,  all  are 
illustrated ;  in  every  case,  there  is  an  entire  agreement 
with  the  Bible.  The  lecturer  inferred,  from  his  studies, 
that  the  Book  of  Job  belonged  to  a  time  about  700 
before  Christ.  In  the  inscriptions  there  is  a  period  of 
nearly  a  thousand  years,  without  mention  of  Judea, 
but  during  that  period,  there  was  no  inducement  for 
intercourse  between  the  Assyrians  and  the  Jews.  The 
visit  of  the  Queen  of  Sheba  to  Solomon  was  verified. 
So,  the  wars  between  Sennacherib  and  Hezekiali.  There 
were  four  distinct  captivities  of  the  Jews.  Some  in 
scriptions  referred  to  the  time  of  Nebuchadnezzar  • 
others  threw  light  on  the  existence  and  actions  of  Bel- 
shazzar,  who  was  joint  king  with  his  father,  Minus, 
and  who  shut  himself  up  in  Nineveh." 


CHAPTER  IV. 


POINTS   TO    BE    PROVEN. 


Look  through  the  world  which  all  about  you  lies, 
The  noisy  town,  its  common,  daily  life, 
Flushed  with  coarse  passions,  hot  with  selfish  strife, 
The  crowded  street,  the  dens  of  VICE  and  WANT, 
The  gilded  halls  where  Pride  and  Fashion  flaunt, 
And  from  their  mingled  threads,  the  grave,  the  gay, 
Weave,  if  you  will,  the  Epic  of  to-day." 


1.  We  hope  to  be  able  to  show  as  this  wonderful  roll 
is  unfolded  before  us,  that  we  should  be  thankful  to  the 
Jews  for  their  Megilloth  Esther.  It  is  a  true  history 
of  persons  and  events  in  a  remarkable  period  of  the 
Church  of  God.  The  adversaries  of  Revelation  delight 
in  pressing  the  objection  that  our  Sacred  Writings  con 
tain  contradictions.  The  argument  is  this :  An  account 
or  story,  say  they,  is  not  to  be  believed,  the  narrators  of 
which  give  contradictory  statements  about  it;  the  sa 
cred  writers  give  contradictory  accounts  of  some  of  the 
things  of  which  they  write ;  therefore  they  are  not  to 
be  believed  at  all.  Now  the  same  argument  applied 
to  Xerxes,  Cyrus,  or  Alexander,  would  prove  that  such 
men  never  lived.  Archbishop  Whately  has  applied 
the  argument  with  great  force  in  his  "  Historic  Doubts/' 


70  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

concerning  Napolean  Bonaparte.  The  argument  stands 
thus :  A  story  is  not  to  be  believed,  whose  reporters  do 
not  agree  in  their  statements  concerning  it :  the  his 
torians  of  the  life  of  Napoleon  do  not  agree  in  their 
reports :  therefore,  the  story  of  his  life  is  not  to  be  be 
lieved.  The  same  process  of  argumentation  would 
prove  there  never  was  such  a  battle  as  that  of  Bunker 
(Breed's)  Hill,  nor  of  New  Orleans,  for  some  of  the 
historians  of  the  wars  and  of  the  times  of  the  actors  in 
these  battles,  have  omitted  to  mention  them  at  all,  or 
have  made  contradictory  statements  concerning  them. 
It  is  not  agreed,  for  instance,  whether  cotton  bales 
were  used  by  General  Jackson  at  the  battle  of  New 
Orleans  or  not.  This  argument  would  prove  that  no 
such  persons  as  Washington  or  Jackson  ever  lived. 

It  is  the  more  important  to  attend,  also,  to  the  fact  that 
our  position  is  very  different  from  that  of  the  heathen. 
The  inquiry  that  naturally  arises  in  the  mind  of  a 
Chinaman,  or  of  any  Pagan,  when  Christianity  is  pro 
posed  to  him,  is  not,  What  are  the  objections  to  Chris 
tianity  ?  but,  Why  should  I  receive  it  ?  The  very  re 
verse  is  the  ordinary  process  among  ourselves.  Being 
brought  up  in  a  Christian  country,  and  not  unfre- 
quently  without  inquiring  into  the  reasons  of  our  faith 
— in  fact,  without  being  stimulated  to  seek  for  reasons 
for  believing  it,  till  we  find  it  controverted ;  and  when 
it  is  controverted,  then  we  find  ourselves  answering  ob 
jections  to,  rather  than  seeking  for  evidences  in  support 
of  Christianity.  This  is  manifestly  giving  the  oppo 
nents  of  Revelation  a  great  advantage.  For  it  is  plain 
that  a  child  can  ask  a  question  that  seven  wise  men 
cannot  answer,  or  propose  a  difficulty  concerning  some 


OBJECTIONS    NOT    CONCLUSIVE.  71 

familiar  thing  that  a  score  of  philosophers  cannot  ex 
plain.  It  is  not  necessary  to  be  able  to  solve  satisfac 
torily  all  the  objections  that  are  alleged  against  the 
doctrines  of  Revelation,  before  we  receive  it  as  the 
Word  of  God.  This  would  be  as  if  a  man  must  be  a 
natural  philosopher,  and  skillful  enough  to  explain  the 
process  of  breathing  and  all  the  apparatus  made  there 
for  before  he  could  inhale  the  air  ;  or  be  able  to  ana 
lyze  his  bread  and  explain  the  whole  process  of  eating 
and  of  digestion  and  assimilation  before  he  should  be 
allowed  to  eat.  And  surely  this  is  a  process  but  few 
will  be  able  to  realize.  The  true  view  of  this  point  is, 
that  there  may  be  truth — truth  supported  by  irrefraga 
ble  arguments,  and  yet,  at  the  same  time,  be  obnoxious 
to  apparent  objections,  numerous,  plausible  and  by 
no  means  easily  answered.  Dr.  Johnson  has  stated 
this  point  in  this  way  :  "  There  are/'  says  he,  "  objec 
tions  against  a  plenum  and  objections  against  a  vacuum  ; 
but  one  of  them  must  be  true.  And  sensible  men, 
really  desirous  of  discovering  truth,  will  perceive  that 
reason  directs  them  to  examine,  first,  the  argument  in 
favor  of  that  side  of  the  question  where  the  first  pre 
sumption  of  truth  appears."  The  case,  then,  stands 
in  the  manner  following :  We  have  books  which  we 
call  Sacred.  The  first  thing;  is  to  examine  their  author- 

o 

ity  and  the  evidences  that  support  it.  Then  we  may 
hear  objections;  but  if  the  proofs  that  the  Bible  is  the 
Word  of  God  are  sufficient,  then,  even  if  there  are  ob 
jections  not  easy  if  at  all  susceptible  of  solution,  still 
we  are  bound  to  receive  it  as  the  Word  of  God.  When 
the  Gospel  was  first  preached,  Jews  and  Gentiles  de- 


72  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

manded  to  know  on  what  grounds  its  claims  rested.* 
They  asked  themselves,  each  one,  "Why  should  I  em 
brace  it  ?  Not  what  are  the  objections  to  it?  So  in 
regard  to  the  Bible,  we  believe  the  difficulties  are 
greatly  overstated.  The  objections  are  magnified. 
Many  of  them  are  only  apparent.  Patience,  candor 
and  intelligence  may  remove  them,  or  explain  them. 
But,  if  not,  we  have  reasons  for  believing  the  Bible  to 
be  the  Word  of  God,  in  spite  of  all  the  objections  to  it 
that  its  opponents  have  ever  been  able  to  produce. 
And  as  reasonable,  accountable  beings,  we  are  bound 
to  hold  to  it  as  the  Word  of  God,  until  we  are  fur 
nished  with  something  better. 

Where  books  and  newspapers  are  not  generally  cir 
culated,  the  people  are  much  under  the  influence  of 
oral  teachings.  In  older  times,  among  all  nations,  story 
tellers  were  an  influential  class  of  instructors.  The 
people  of  the  East  have  always  been  remarkably  fond 
of  story  telling.  The  Arabian  Nights,  Persian  tales 
of  Genii,  and  all  their  literature  is  proof  of  this.  The 
chief  points  of  Abraham's  life,  and  of  Isaac  and  Jacob, 
of  Joseph  and  Moses,  and  of  Joshua,  David  and  Solo 
mon,  live  on  their  lips  to  this  day.  The  names  are 
sometimes  changed  altogether,  and  generally  a  little 
modified,  and  Ishmael  and  Esau  are  usually  made 
greater  heroes  than  Isaac  and  Jacob;  and  many  a  weary 
evening  is  beguiled  away  in  the  Arab's  tent  by  the 
story  of  Hebrew  patriarchs  and  kings.  Ptebekah's 
marriage  with  the  son  of  the  great  Shiekh,  Alou  II- 
rahim,  El  Halil,  and  the  story  of  Joseph,  of  Daniel, 


*  Whately,  in  several  of  his  very  able  works,  and  Dr.  Hawkins,  in  his 
work  on  Tradition,  have  some  excellent  thoughts  011  thid  subject,  and  pre 
sented  much  more  fully  than  can  be  done  here. 


PATRIARCHAL    STORIES.  73 

and  of  Susannah  and  Hadassah,  are  almost  as  well 
known  among  the  wandering  children  of  the  deserts 
of  Asia  and  Africa,  (though  they  are  neither  able  to 
read  nor  write,)  in  their  essential  points,  as  they  are  to 
our  Sunday  school  classes.  From  this  there  are  two 
lessons  to  be  learned :  First,  That  God  graciously  con 
sulted  for  the  preservation  of  revealed  truth  by  com 
mitting  His  oracles,  in  times  past,  to  Orientals,  and  not 
to  any  of  us  Western  peoples,  nor  to  a  race  resembling 
us.  The  language  of  the  Hebrews,  its  idioms  and 
structure,  and  their  geographical  position  and  national 
relationships,  and  peculiar  formation  of  mind,  fitted 
them  pre-eminently  to  receive  and  preserve  for  mankind 
until  the  fullness  of  time  for  their  manifestation,  the 
Divine  communications,  made  from  the  beginning,  to 
patriarchs  and  prophets  for  the  benefit  of  the  human 
race.  Salvation  is  of  the  Jews.  They  were  God's 
reservoir  of  saving  truth.  And  the  second  lesson  is, 
that  we  owe  a  great  debt  of  gratitude  to  God  and  to 
our  country — to  our  parents  and  friends  for  our  privi 
leges,  literary  and  religious.  "We  have  the  word  of 
God  in  all  its  essential  purity,  both  in  the  original  and 
in  translations  and  versions,  so  that  we  may  all  hear  of 
the  wonderful  things  of  God  in  the  tongue  with  which 
we  were  born. 

2.  We  expect  to  be  able  to  show  that  true  happiness 
is  to  be  found  in  putting  our  trust  in  Providence.  The 
whole  story  of  Esther  ais  like  a  transparency  hung  be 
fore  the  Pavilion  of  the  Almighty,  through  which  his 
counsels  shine,  and  his  unerring  hand  is  invisible." 
The  whole  book  illustrates  the  fact  that  Providence 


74  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

has  a  life  plan  for  every  individual,  and  works"  out  that 
plan  in  the  use  of  the  ordinary  events  of  life. 

We  shall  find  a  providence  in  this  history  touching 
the  ancient  Church  of  God  worthy  of  special  remem 
brance.  It  is  both  natural  and  strange  that  any  of  the 
Jews  should  have  preferred  to  remain  in  exile  after  the 
decree  of  Cyrus  permitting  them  to  return  to  their  own 
land,  and  to  the  enjoyment  of  their  own  peculiar  reli 
gious  services  at  Jerusalem.  As  they  built  houses  and 
planted  vineyards  in  the  land  of  their  captivity,  and 
prayed  for  the  prosperity  of  their  conquerors  and  mas 
ters,  it  is  not  strange  they  should  have  become  attached 
to  their  Persian  homes;  but  it  is  strange  that  any  of 
those  that  belonged  to  Abraham's  posterity  should  have 
become  so  indifferent  to  the  great  promises  that  were 
yet  unfulfilled  as  to  seem  to  abandon  them,  and  give 
up  their  distinctiveness  as  a  nation,  made  peculiar  and 
separated  from  all  other  peoples.  Such,  however,  was 
the  fact.  While  some  returned,  many  were  content  to 
remain.  Nor  are  the  Jews  we  find  throughout  the 
Persian  empire  to  be  supposed  as  belonging  only,  if  at 
all,  to  "Those  trackless  fugitives,  the  lost  Ten  Tribes." 
They  were  also  of  the  house  of  Judah  and  Benjamin. 
But  the  God  of  their  fathers  neither  failed  to  protect 
those  that  returned  to  the  Holy  Land,  nor  those  that 
remained  behind  in  Persia.  Nor  are  examples  of  emi 
nent  piety  and  zeal  for  their  religion  wholly  wanting 
either  among  those  that  returned  with  Nehemiah  and 
Ezra,  or  among  those  that  remained  on  the  Euphrates. 

The  two  prominent  agents  raised  up  at  this  time  for 
the  preservation  of  the  church  are  Mordecai  and  Esther, 


GOD'S    AGENTS    EVERYWHERE.  75 

by  whom  God  worked  out  a  a  glorious  deliverance  from 
one  of  the  most  mournful,  imminent  and  universal  dan 
gers  of  total  destruction  that  ever  had  threatened  the 
Jewish  church."  The  providence  of  God  in  raising  up 
a  Hebrew  maid  to  be  the  Queen  of  Persia,  and  in  over 
throwing  Hainan  for  his  iniquity,  and  in  rewarding 
Mordecai  for  his  piety  and  integrity,  is  wonderful.  The 
piety  and  wisdom  of  Esther  and  Mordecai  are  not,  how 
ever,  so  super-eminent  as  to  obscure  the  dealings  of  a 
most  gracious  sovereignty.  The  virtues  of  the  instru 
ments  do  not  render  any  the  less  conspicuous  the  mercy 
and  power  of  God  toward  his  ancient  people  in  their 
captivity  and  voluntary  exile.  The  sovereign  goodness 
of  God  toward  his  church  is  seen  sometimes  in  using 
the  heathen  to  afflict  it,  and  then  in  overturning  them 
and  in  making  their  perdition  subservient  to  the  ad 
vancement  of  his  truth.  Jehovah  is  King  in  all  the 
earth.  He  niaketh  the  wrath  of  man  to  praise  him, 
and  the  remainder  of  wrath  he  restraineth.  A  poet 
has  well  said,  in  teaching  us  to  recognize  God's  provi 
dence,  that 


"  If  pestilence  stalk  through  the  land,  ye  say, 

This  is  God's  doing ; 

Is  it  not  also  His  doing,  when  an  aphis  creepeth  on  a  rose-bud  ? 
If  an  avalanche  roll  from   its  Alp,  ye  tremble  at  the  will  of 

Providence : 
Is  not  that  will  concerned  when  the  sear  leaves  fall  from  the 

poplar?" 


"  Let  all  those  that  seek  thee  rejoice  and  be  glad  in 
thee  :  let  such  as  love  thy  salvation  say  continually, 
The  LORD  be  magnified.  But  I  am  poor  and  needy; 

4A 


76  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

yet  the  LORD  thinketh  upon  me  :  thou  art  my  help  and 
my  deliverer;  make  no  tarrying,  0  my  God."  Prov. 
xl.  16,  17.  "  Are  not  five  sparrows  sold  for  two  far 
things,  and  not  one  of  them  is  forgotten  before  God  ? 
But  even  the  very  hairs  of  your  head  are  all  numbered. 
Fear  not  therefore;  for  ye  are  of  more  value  than  many 
sparrows. "  Luke  xi.  6,  7. 

3.  We  expect  to  be  able  to  show  from  the  testimony 
in  this  case  that  it  is  not  only  God's  plan  to  work  by 
means,  but  often  to  surprise  his  people  by  unexpected 
deliverances,  and  by  bringing  great  results  out  of  small 
beginnings.  The  greatest  events  in  human  history 
have  been  generally  produced  by  apparently  insignifi 
cant  causes,  and  because  of  their  quiet  might,  they  have 
awakened  at  first  but  little  interest.  The  greatest  pow 
ers  of  nature  are  silent  and  invisible.  The  power  of 
gravitation,  what  is  it  ?  Who  hath  seen  it  ?  The  light 
ning  and  the  dew  how  powerful,  and  yet  how  impalpa 
ble  !  The  ruins  of  a  city,  are  they  not  the  fruits  of  a 
spark  ?  And  if  a  noble  mind  is  wrecked,  is  it  not  the 
result  of  a  wrong  impression  recieved  in  the  nursery, 
or  of  some  insidious  falsehood  imperceptibly  imbibed 
and  left  to  take  root  and  grow  strong  and  work  out  the 
ruin,  before  its  poison  was  detected?  The  turning 
point  of  Washington's  life — the  decision  that  made  him 
the  Father  of  his  country,  was  it  not  his  regard  for  his 
mother  ?  Joseph  and  Moses,  Daniel  and  Mordecai,  illus 
trate  the  value  of  right  principles  implanted  in  the  youth 
ful  mind  by  parental  affection  and  piety.  One  could  not 
yield  to  the  most  seductive  temptation,  because  to  do 
so  would  be  a  sin  against  God;  another  refused  the 


THE    STILL    SMALL    VOICE. 


77 


honors  of  an  empire,  then  the  greatest  on  earth,  and 
chose  to  suffer  poverty  and  persecution  with  Clod's  peo 
ple,  because  of  the  faith  in  which  he  had  been  brought 
up.  And  Mordecai  and  Daniel,  captives  in  the  most 
licentious  and  luxurious  heathen  cities  on  the  globe — 
far  from  home  and  from  all  parental  oversight — and 
great  favorites  with  the  Courts  of  Babylon  and  Persia, 
never  forgot  their  education,  nor  brought  reproach  upon 
their  mothers'  catechism  or  their  fathers'  faith.  The 
impressions  made  on  their  young  hearts  by  their  Hebrew 
parents  were  indelible.  The  beauty,  power  and  fascina- ' 
tion  of  the  most  splendid  heathen  courts  could  not  efface 
them.  The  fiery  prophet  Elijah  is  another  illustration 
of  the  effectiveness  of  silent  influences.  The  solemn 
thunder  came  rattling  from  the  desert  clouds,  the  hur 
ricane  came  sweeping  over  the  rocks  and  riven  moun 
tains  of  granite  and  porphyry,  filling  the  air  with  clouds 
of  sand — the  rocking  and  crashing  march  of  the  earth 
quake,  and  the  blinding  flame  of  the  lightning — all 
failed  to  reach  his  heart.  Grod  was  not  in  the  wind, 
nor  in  the  fire,  nor  in  the  earthquake.  It  was  when 
the  Lord  spake  to  the  prophet  "in  the  still  small  voice," 
that  his  heart  was  opened  and  his  stubborn  soul  was 
conquered.  Mother,  sow  the  seed.  Father,  instill  the 
principle.  And  cry  to  God,  mightily  both  of  you,  and 
far  away,  and  many  days  hence,  the  seed  will  grow,  the 
principle  will  live,  and  your  Grod  will  be  the  God  and 
everlasting  portion  of  your  children.  The  waving  har 
vest  is  all  from  seed  cast  into  the  ground  with  mingled 
hopes  and  fears.  The  rolling  river  springs  from  brooks 
among  the  hills,  whose  tiny  fountains  an  infant's  hand 
could  turn  aside. 


78  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

"  That  yew  tree  of  a  thousand  years  was  once  a  little  seed  ; 
And  Nero's  marble  Rome,  a  shepherd's  mud-built  hovel : 
A  speck  is  on  the  tropic  sky,  and  it  groweth  to  the  terrible 

tornado. 

An  apple,  all  too  fair  to  see,  destroyed  a  world  of  souls ! 
A  tender  babe  is  born — it  is  Attila,  scourge  of  the  nations  ! 
A  seeming  malefactor  dieth — it  is  Jesus,  the   SAVIOUR  OP 

MEN."  Tapper. 


CHAPTER  Y. 

SUSA,    AND     HER     KING. 

Susa,  by  Choaspes'  amber  stream 


The  drink  of  none  but  kings." 

Par.  Reg.  II. 

SOMETIME  between  the  famous  battle  of  Marathon, 
and  the  celebrated  retreat  of  the  ten  thousand  Greeks 
under  Xenophon,  say  about  five  hundred  years  before 
the  angels  sang  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on 
earth  peace,  good  will  toward  men,"  the  great  king 
Ahasuerus  sat  on  his  throne,  in  the  royal  city  of  Susa, 
and  made  a  feast  to  all  his  princes  and  servants.  But 
so  uncertain  is  human  fame — so  evanescent  all  earthly 
glory,  that  it  is  difficult  to  know  who  this  same  great 
king  Ahasuerus  was.  Almost  every  Medo-Persian  king, 
from  Cyaxeres  I  down  to  Ochus,  or  Artaxerxes  III, 
has,  in  turn,  been  identified  by  some  interpreter  of  an 
cient  records  as  the  Ahasuerus  of  Esther.  Some  of 
the  uncertainties  that  surround  us,  in  Persian  history, 
may  be  anticipated,  when  we  remember  the  curious  fact 
that,  up  to  this  time,  I  believe,  no  trace  whatever  is 
found  of  the  name  of  Xerxes  in  the  Persian  records. 
It  is  probable,  as  his  father  reigned  sixty  years,  that 


80  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

the  period  of  his  government  has  been  confounded  with 
that  of  his  father,  Gustasp.  If  so,  it  is  a  remarkable 
instance  of  the  uncertainty  of  enduring  fame.  If  a 
monarch,  that  led  such  armies  as  Xerxes  did,  has  failed 
to  perpetuate  his  name  in  the  history  of  his  own  country, 
who  can  expect  to  live  in  the  memory  of  mankind  ? 
If  it  be  correct  that  Gustasp  was  his  father,  and  that 
his  reign  is  merged  into  his,  then  his  name,  in  the  Per 
sian  annals,  is  not  Xerxes,  but  Isfunder,  the  father  of 
Artaxerxes  Longimanus.  Perhaps  all  agree  that  the 
name  Aliasucrus  of  the  Hebrews  and  Romans  is  the  same 
as  the  Artaxerxes  of  the  Greeks,  and  the  Ardslieer  of  the 
Persians.  Ardsheer,  or  ArdasJiir,  signifies,  according 
to  some,  "the  lion  of  the  camp" — Sir  John  Malcolm 
says,  "the  Prince  of  the  earth;"  and  Grotefend  says, 
"the  great  warrior."  The  whole  name,  in  Persian,  is 
the  long-handed  Ardsheer,  which  corresponds  exactly 
to  Artaxerxes  Longimanus,  that  is,  Artaxerxes  Long- 
arms — his  arms  are  said  to  have  been  so  long,  that 
when  he  stood  upright,  like  Rob  Roy,-  the  ends  of  his 
fingers  reached  below  his  knees.  It  was  at  the  court  of 
this  long-armed  prince  that  the  famous  Themistocles 
found  refuse  as  an  exile,  and  where  he  is  said  to  have 

o  / 

learned  the  Persian  language  in  one  year.  Thucy.  lib. 
l:  138.  If  this  is  correct,  it  is  a  proof  that  the 
Greek  and  Persian  languages  were  much  alike,  which 
is  as  we  should  expect,  if  they  are  descendants  from 
one  common  mother,  the  Sanskrit,  as  our  best  scholars 
tell  us.  See  Vaux.,  p.  116. 

Some  say,  this  Ahasuerus  was  Xerxes  the  Great,  the 
terror  of  Greece  —  so  Jahn,  Scaliger  and  others.  The 
learned  Scaliger  identifies  as  proof  of  this,  Xerxes'  queen 


WHO   WAS   AHASTJERUS?  81 

Hamestris  with  Esther.  But  how  can  this  be,  when 
Xerxes  had  a  son  by  Hamestris  that  was  marriageable 
in  the  seventh  year  of  his  reign  ?  And  the  similarity 
urged  between  the  names  is  more  than  counter-balanced 
by  the  striking  dissimilarity  of  their  characters.  Queen 
Hamestris  was  as  much  unlike  Queen  Esther  as  the 
name  Xerxes  was  like  the  name  Artaxerxes. 

Usher  says,  Ahasuerus  was  Darius  Hystaspes,  and 
that  Atossa,  his  wife,  was  Vashti,  and  Artystona  was 
Esther.  Now,  if  Herodotus  is  correct,  and  all  the 
Archbishop's  reliance  is  upon  the  Greek  writers  of 
Alexander's  age,  and  following,  this  Artystona  was  a 
daughter  of  Cyrus,  and  could  not  therefore  have  been 
Esther.  And  again,  Atossa  bore  several  daughters 
and  four  sons  to  Darius,  after  he  was  king ;  but,  ac 
cording  to  the  Bible,  Vashti  was  divorced  in  the  third 
year  of  the  king's  reign.  She  could  hardly,  therefore, 
have  been  the  mother  of  four  sons  and  several  daughters 
.in  three  years;  and,  moreover,  Atossa  retained  her  in 
fluence  over  the  king  to  his  death,  and  gained  the 
crown  for  her  son,  Xerxes.  Atossa  then  could  not 
have  been  Yashti,  nor  Darius  Hystaspes,  Ahasuerus. 
No  doubt  the  difficulty  of  fixing  the  identity  of  Aha 
suerus  has  been  enhanced  from  the  fact  that  the  same 
name  has  been  given  to  two  other  Persian  kings  in  the 
Bible — to  Cambyses,  the  son  of  Cyrus,  in  Ezra  iv.:  6; 
and  to  Astyages,  king  of  the  Medes,  and  father  of 
Cyaxares,  Dan.  ix.:  1,  neither  of  whom  can  be  identi 
cal  with  the  Ahasuerus  of  Esther.  Dr.  Kitto  properly 
concludes  that  the  real  alternative  is  between  Xerxes 
the  Great  and  Artaxerxes  Longimanus;  but,  it  seems  to 
me,  the  reasons  which  he  assigns  in  favor  of  Xerxes 

4B 


82  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

are  not  at  all  satisfactory.  See  his  Cyclo.  Bib.  Lit. 
The  extent  of  the  king's  dominions,  and  the  luxurious 
habits  of  the  court,  and  the  condition  of  the  He 
brews,  and  the  favor  shown  to  them,  apply  equally 
well  to  either  of  the  Persian  monarchs  named,  so  that 
no  decisive  proof  can  be  had  to  this  point  from  the  in 
ternal  evidences  of  the  book  of  Esther.  If  anything 
can  be  gathered  from  the  history  of  Esther  at  all,  bear 
ing  on  this  point,  it  is  in  favor  of  Artaxerxes  Lon- 
gimanus,  whose  favor  toward  the  Hebrews  we  may 
conclude  was  owing  to  the  influence  of  Mordccai  and 
Esther. 

Josephus,  and  the  apochryphal  books,  and  the  Sep- 
tuagint,  and,  I  believe,  the  learned  generally,  have 
agreed  that  this  Aliasucrus  was  Artaxerxes  Longima- 
nus,  son  and  successor  of  Xerxes.  So  Drs.  Prideaux, 
Hales,  Gray  and  many  others.  The  reasons,  briefly, 
in  favor  of  this  opinion,  are  : 

1.  The  high  authority  of  Josephus  and  of  the   au 
thors  who  hold  this  opinion. 

2.  Though,  as  I  have  stated  before,  Persian  chro 
nology  is  but  little  more  than  a  mass  of  confusion,  if 
not  of  contradictions,  still,  as  far  as  we  can  understand 
it  from  contemporary  records,  the  time  of  Artaxerxes 
Longimanus  is  more  fully  in  harmony  with  the  events 
recorded  in  our  history  than  of  any  other  Persian  king. 

3.  There  are,  it  seems  to  me,  insuperable  difficulties 
in  receiving  the  Xerxes  of  the  Greeks  as  the  husband 
of  Esther,  or  of  admitting   any  other  Persian    king 
than  Artaxerxes  Longimanus,  as  the  Ahasuerus  of  the 
Bible.     And  yet  I  believe  the  tendency  of  scholars, 


VASTNESS   OF    THE    EMPIRE.  83 

at  the  present  moment,  is  to  make  Xerxes  the  Great  the 
Ahasuerus  of  the  Megilloth  Esther.  The  argument 
for  Xerxes,  from  the  reading  of  the  name  by  Grote- 
fend  and  Champollion,  is,  however,  more  than  counter 
balanced  by  the  readings  of  E-awlinson  and  the  inves 
tigations  of  Malcolm,  which,  so  far  as  they  seem  to 
throw  any  light  on  the  subject,  are  in  favor  of  Artax- 
erxes  Longiinanus.  It  will  be  remembered,  in  this 
connection,  also,  that  Ahasuerus,  like  Cassar,  Pharaoh, 
Louis  or  George,  was  common  to  several  kings,  and 
may  be  regarded  as  a  title  rather  than  a  name. 

Ahasuerus  reigned  from  India  even  unto  Ethiopia. 
So  varied  was  the  climate  of  Persia,  and  so  extensive 
its  limits,  that  the  younger  Cyrus  was  correct,  though 
a  little  boastful,  in  saying  to  Xenophon  :  "  My  father's 
kingdom  is  so  large  that  people  perish  with  cold  at  one 
extremity,  while  they  are  suffocated  with  heat  at  the 
other/'  The  great  extent  of  the  dominions  of  the 
Persian  kings  may  be  learned  from  the  great  numbers 
and  the  great  diversities  of  national  costumes  found  in 
their  armies.  Herodotus  says  that,  in  their  infantry 
and  cavalry  and  marine  were  no  less  than  fifty-six  dif 
ferent  nations.  The  empire  was  the  largest  under  Ar- 
taxerxes  Longiinanus,  the  Ahasuerus  of  the  text.  It 
was  greater  than  that  of  Assyria,  Chaldea,  and  greater 
than  the  Median.  It  extended  as  far  west  as  Greece; 
north  to  the  Euxine  and  Caspian,  and  south  to  the  in 
terior  of  Africa.  Literallly  "  from  India  even  unto 
Ethiopia."  Xenophon's  account  of  the  extent  of  the 
Persian  empire  confirms  the  text  in  a  striking  manner. 
The  terms  of  boundary  are  almost  identical.  He  says, 
the  great  and  glorious  kingdom  of  Cyrus  was  bounded 


84  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

by  the  Red  Sea,  and  on  the  south  by  Ethiopia,  and 
on  the  north  by  the  Euxine,  and  on  the  west  by  Cy 
prus  and  Egypt.  Cyrop.  lib.  viii.  The  time  had 
been  when  the  Cilicians,  Egyptians,  Phenicians,  Sy 
rians  and  the  forefathers  of  the  Persians  themselves 
had  all  been  subjects  of  Nineveh,  but  long  before  the 
return  of  the  Hebrews  from  Babylon,  Nineveh  had 
fallen,  and  Assyria  and  Media,  as  separate  kingdoms, 
had  ceased  to  exist,  and  the  Persian  empire  was  su 
preme,  from  the  Indus  to  the  Hellespont,  and  over  all 
Arabia  and  Egypt,  to  the  heart  of  Africa.  In  the 
days  of  Daniel,  we  find  Cyrus  and  Darius  reigning  over 
one  hundred  and  twenty  provinces j  but  it  were  an 
easy  thing  for  the  successor  of  Xerxes  to  add  seven 
more,  which  would  make  the  number  of  king  Ahasue- 
rus.  The  Russian  empire,  in  our  day,  consists  of  fifty- 
four  governments,  but  these  governments  cover  an  area 
much  more  extensive  than  the  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven  provinces  of  Persia.  And  who  can  tell  how 
many  provinces  Her  Majesty,  Queen  Victoria,  reigns 
over? 

And  now  that  we  are  "  acquaint77  with  the  king  and 
know  something  of  his  empire,  let  us  look  at  his  capital 
and  palace.  Shushan  the  palace,  according  to  the  Sep- 
tuagint,  means  Shushan  the  city.  This  is  the  Hebrew 
also,  and  is  no  doubt  correct,  for  it  was  the  city  that 
was  called  Shushan,  and  not  the  palace.  The  three 
great  capitals  of  ancient  Persia  were  Ecbatana,  Baby 
lon  and  Susa.  It  is  believed  that  Susa  is  the  same  as 
Shushan,  and  that  the  Shus,  or  Sinister  of  our  day, 
represents  the  Susa  of  the  text.  The  name,  according 
to  some,  is  Pehlvi,  signifying  "  delightful/'  and  was 


THE    CITY   OF    SUSA.  85 

given  to  the  city  because  of  its  exceeding  pleasantness 
of  situation  and  climate.  Others  say  the  name  Susa 
signifies  "Lily,"  and  that  the  city  was  so  called,  on 
account  of  the  great  profusion  of  this  beautiful  flower, 
that  clothes  the  surrounding  plains,  interspersed  with 
a  great  variety  also  of  sweet  scented  plants.  Strabo  is 
extravagant  in  his  descriptions  of  the  beauty  of  this 
city — a  city  which  he  says  is  "  most  worthy  to  foe 
praised."  He  says  also  that  the  plains  around  were  so 
fertile  that  they  produced  "two  hundred  fold."  Aris 
totle  also  refers  to  Susa  as  "  a  most  wonderful  city,"  . 
and  says,  "  its  palace  shines  with  gold,  amber  and 
ivory."  It  was  the  favorite  residence  of  Cyrus,  and 
believed  to  have  been  preferred  to  Babylon  by  all  the 
Persian  kings.  Its  gardens  and  surrounding  plains 
were  once  filled  with  oleanders,  pomegranates,  dates, 
lemons,  oranges,  or  covered  with  "  golden  seas  of  corn," 
while  the  distant  view  was  bounded  by  snow-clad  moun 
tains,  somewhere  amongst  which  the  remains  of  Noah's 
ark  are  buried.  A  thick  forest  of  tamarisk,  poplar  and 
acacia,  skirt  the  plain  around  the  ruins,  which  are  a 
cover  for  lions,  wolves,  foxes,  boars,  porcupines,  jack 
als,  lizards,  serpents,  francolins  and  partridges.  Mr. 
Loftus'  chapter  on  Susa  is  well  worth  the  attention  of 
all  Biblical  readers.  See  pages  335-348. 

The  early  history  of  Susa  is  almost  unknown  to  us, 
but  it  must  have  had  a  beginning,  though  that  beginning 
is  lost  in  the  dim  shadows  of  the  past.  From  the  early 
history  of  Abraham  we  have  learned  that  Elani  was  a 
kingdom  in  his  day,  and  it  is  almost  certain  that  the 
kingdom  of  Chedorlaomer  was  founded  by  Elam  the 
son  of  Shem;  and  from  Ezra  iv.:  9,  we  see  that  the 


86  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

Elamites  were  a  dependency  of  Persia;  and  Daniel 
tells  us,  viii :  2,  that  Shushan  was  the  palace  city,  and 
that  it  was  in  the  province  of  Elam.  From  all  of 
which  we  conclude  that  the  Elam  of  the  Bible,  the 
Elymais  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans,  and  Susiana,  are 
one  and  the  same.  Some  make  Susa  identical  with 
Cush.  Herodotus  does  indeed  tell  us  that  Susa  was 
built  by  that  Ethiopian  Memnon,  who  assisted  king 
Priam  in  defending  Troy,  and  that  at  one  time  the  city 
was  called  Memnonia,  after  its  founder.  Persian  an 
nalists  say  it  was  founded  by  Hoshung,  the  grandson  of 
Kaiomurs,  a  king  of  the  early  Pischdadian  dynasty.  I 
know  not  how  to  reconcile  these  discrepancies.  I  can 
not  tell  which  is  the  true  account.  They  are  hardly 
however  all  correct.  But  they  serve  to  prove  its  early 
antiquity  and  greatness.  Its  magnificence  is  also  to  be 
inferred  from  its  representation  upon  the  embroidered 
pallium,  or  shawl  of  Alcisthenes  of  Sybaris,  described 
in  Aristotle's  Memorabilia,  See  Loftus,  p.  336. 

Herodotus  distinguishes  the  Eastern  Ethiopians  of 
Asia  from  the  Western  Ethiopians  of  Africa,  by  the 
straight  hair  of  the  former  and  the  curly  hair  of  the 
latter.  Herod.,  Book  vii :  69,  70.  And  in  the  Odys 
sey,  Homer  speaks  of  a  divided  race  of  men — some  at 
the  extreme  west,  and  others  at  the  extreme  east. 
i:  22.  From  this  and  other  testimony  it  is  concluded 
that  the  Eastern  Ethiopians  of  Herodotus  and  the  Chal 
deans  of  the  Bible  are  one  and  the  same,  and  that  the 
seat  of  the  empire  of  the  Memnon  who  aided  Priam 
against  the  Greeks  at  the  siege  of  Troy  was  Susa,  which 
after  him  was  called  Memnonium.  This  Memnon  is 
styled  an  Ethiopian.  The  recent  readings  of  the  prirni- 


SCRIPTURES    CONFIRMED.  87 

tive  cuneiform  inscriptions  of  Susa  and  Mugeyer  render 
it  probable  that  the  Chaldeans  were  a  colony  from 
Egypt.  The  same  ideas  of  astronomy  that  were  held 
by  the  Egyptians  prevailed  in  ancient  Babylonia. 

Rawlinson  also  explains  another  matter  relating  to 
Belshazzar,  which  is  of  great  importance.  According 
to  the  Bible,  this  king  promised  Daniel  that  he  should 
be  made  "third  ruler  in  the  kingdom/'  if  he  should 
succeed  in  interpreting  the  hand-writing.  Why  was 
he  not  made  next  to  the  king  as  Joseph  was  in  Egypt?  £ 
For  the  very  good  reason  that  Nabonidus  and  Belshazzar 
reigned  jointly,  and  as  there  were  two  on  the  throne, 
if  Daniel  is  raised  to  it,  he  would  emphatically  be  "the 
third  ruler  in  the  kingdom/'  Truly  there  is  no  device 
nor  knowledge  against  the  Lord.  His  blessed  word  is  a 
tried  word,  but  precious  and  abiding.  It  never  fails. 
To  explain  some  difficulties  that  have  been  raised  about 
the  Shushan  of  Esther,  and  Daniel  "in  the  palace  which 
is  in  the  province  of  Elarn,"  it  has  been  said  there 
must  have  been  two  cities  of  this  name  in  the  province 
of  Susiana,  the  one  the  Shushan  of  the  Bible,  in 
the  mountains  of  Bakhtizari;  the  other,  the  Susa  of 
the  Greeks;  and  that  it  was  to  distinguish  the  one  from 
the  other  that  Daniel  says  "'Shushan  the  palace."  But 
this  explanation  is  not  necessary,  and  is  not  sustained 
by  history.  Josephus  corroborates  the  Bible  account. 
He  states  that  Daniel  built  a  famous  castle  at  Susa, 
which  was  in  a  fine  state  of  preservation  in  his  own 
time. 

We  know  that  a  palace  has  been  discovered  at  Nine 
veh,  in  which  are  found  a  series  of  sculptures  recording  u 
the  conquest  of  Susiana,  which,  as  artistic  productions, 


88  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

are  pronounced  the  chef-d' ce.uvrcs  of  all  Assyrian  sculp 
ture.  No  other  Persian  city  was  equal  to  Susa  for 
beauty  of  situation  and  salubrity  of  climate.  It  vied 
with  Babylon  in  riches,  and  in  the  grandeur  of  its  walls, 
temples,  gardens,  and  state  buildings.  It  was  from 
this  city  Xerxes  set  out  on  his  ill-fated  expedition  against 
Greece,  and  it  was  here  he  deposited  the  treasures  he 
took  from  the  City  of  Athens  and  from  the  temple  of 
Delphi.  It  was  here  the  vast  treasures  of  Persia  were 
kept.  Alexander  the  Great  found  here  fifty  thousand 
talents  of  gold,  probably  equal  to  two  hundred  and 
seventy  millions  of  pounds  sterling,  besides  a  large 
number  of  vessels  of  gold  and  silver,  and  jewels  of  very 
great  value. 

According  to  Arrian's  expedition  of  Alexander, 
in.  16,  there  was  a  very  strong  citadel  in  Susa,  and  it 
once  stood  a  terrible  siege.  Under  the  Sassanian  kings 
Susa  appears  as  a  considerable  city.  In  the  third  cen 
tury  it  was  a  Christian  See.  Under  its  walls  was 
fought  a  great  battle  by  the  Persians  under  Horinuzan? 
against  the  Moslem  hosts,  but  from  that  day,  it  seems 
to  have  been  lost  from  history.  There  is  no  reason  to 
doubt,  however,  but  that  it  has  been  identified.  An 
account  of  the  ruins  at  the  present  day,  and  of  the  evi 
dences  of  its  magnificent  structures,  columns,  palaces, 
and  gardens,  is  to  be  seen  at  length  in  Loftus,  and  the 
reports  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society.  Recent  excava 
tions  at  Susa,  show  that  the  pavement  of  the  palace 
was  formed  of  red,  and  blue,  and  white,  and  black  mar 
ble,  arranged  in  gorgeous  Arabesque  patterns  of  the 
different  parts  of  the  animals  that  Daniel  saw  in  his  vi 
sions,  on  the  banks  of  the  river  Ulai,  when  this  em- 


THE   RUINS    OF    SUSA.  89 

pire  was  in  in  its  glory,  and  according  to  the  history  in 
our  text.  It  may  be  remembered  also  that  among  the 
sacred  emblems  found  here  is  the  cross — just  as  we  find 
it  among  the  Egyptians,  more  than  a  thousand  years 
before  Christ  was  born.  The  ruins  of  Susa  cover  some 
twelve  miles  square,  extending  almost  to  the  bank  of 
the  Kerkhad,  supposed  to  be  the  ancient  Choaspes.  The 
mounds  are  like  those  of  Babylon,  huge  hillocks  of  earth 
and  rubbish,  broken  bricks,  and  colored  tiles.  The  lar 
gest  one,  according  to  our  best  authors,  is  one  mile  in 
circumference,  and  one  hundred  feet  high.  Near  to  it 
is  another  almost  as  large.  The  people  of  the  country 
call  them  the  palace  and  the  castle.  They  are  like 
the  pyramids  of  ruins  covering  the  site  of  Babylon, 
and  believed  to  have  been  built  of  clay  and  tiles,  and 
layers  of  brick  and  morter.  Blocks  of  marble  covered 
with  sculptures,  are  often  found  by  the  Arabs,  who 
search  among  the  ruins  for  treasure;  which  they  think 
is  hidden  there.  They  believe  that  it  is  in  hopes  of  find 
ing  treasure  that  Europeans  are  so  fond  of  digging  up 
their  old  ruins.  Major  Rawlinson  says  he  has  identified 
the  port  and  citadel  of  this  ancient  city.  He  states  that 
the  great  mound  is  165  feet  high,  and  1100  yards  round 
the  base,  and  850  yards  round  the  summit;  and  that 
on  the  summit  there  is  a  slab  with  thirty-three  lines 
written  in  the  cuneiform  or  arrow-headed  character, 
and  three  Babylonian  sepulchral  urns  are  found  embed 
ded  in  the  soil.  He  also  says  he  finds  there  floorings 
of  brickwork,  and  broken  pottery,  glazed  tiles  and  kiln- 
burnt  bricks.  Large  figures  in  the  palace  ruins  are  also 
found,  resembling  in  every  particular  those  lately  dis 
covered  in  the  pavements  of  Egypt  and  Assyria.  At 


90  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

the  foot  of  the  highest  pyramid  is  the  tomb  of  Daniel. 
Though  the  small  building  that  now  covers  the  spot  is 
modern,  there  is  no  improbability  but  it  marks  the  last 
resting  place  of  the  prophet. 

It  is  true  there  is  a  contradiction  in  some  of  the 
copies  of  Josephus  about  the  tomb  of  Daniel.  In  some 
his  burying-place  is  made  "Ecbatana  in  Media,"  but 
Jerome,  professing  to  copy  from  Josephus,  places  it  in 
"Susa  in  Persia."  This  proves  that  in  his  day  his 
copy  of  Josephas  had  this  reading,  and  we  believe  this 
to  be  the  true  one.  For  it  appears  from  our  best 
authorities  that  Daniel  was  governor  of  the  province  of 
Susiana  under  the  king  of  Babylon;  and  we  know  he 
was  highly  honored  by  him,  and  that  he  "did  the  king's 
business  at  Shushan  the  palace."  And  Josephus  says 
that  the  house  which  Daniel  built  for  himself  at  Susa 
remained  "in  freshness  and  undiminished  beauty  at  the 
time  he  wrote."* 

But  the  glory  of  Susa — its  beauty  and  wealth,  its 
palaces  and  temples,  are  now  mouldering  masses.  It  is 
no  uncommon  thing  for  the  traveler  who  visits  the  ruins 
of  this  once  populous,  powerful  and  "delightful  city" 
to  have  to  seek  shelter  at  night  from  lions,  hyenas  and 
other  beasts  of  prey,  that  now  have  their  dwelling  in 
the  marble  halls  that  were  once  radiant  with  the  beauty 
of  Persia,  within  the  walls  of  the  Mohammed  Mosque — 
Tomb  of  Daniel. 

The  intelligent  and  pious  traveler  will  find  his  great 
est  interest  in  these  ruins  to  arise  from  the  fact,  that 
they  mark  the  site  of  the  great  city  that  was  once  the 
scene  of  a  most  deeply  interesting  series  of  events  that 

*  See  Prideaux's  Connexion,  and  Work  of  Sir  R.  R.  Porter. 


REFLECTIONS    AT    SUSA.  91 

closely  concerned  the  Church  of  God,  and  are  still  a 
proof  of  how  he  watched  over  his  people  and  protected 
them  in  ancient  times  from  destruction,  though  in  cap 
tivity  for  their  sins.  Nor  will  he  fail  to  ask  himself, 
how  are  the  mighty  fallen !  Kings  and  princes,  proud 
oppressors  and  tyrants,  may  quaff  the  tears  of  their  sub-  , 
jects  and  make  music  of  their  groans,  and  build  thrones 
of  human  skulls,  but  they  cannot  be  sure  of  their  names 
enduring  forever  on  earth,  and  much  less  may  they  ex 
pect  to  find  favor  for  such  things  with  the  King  of 
Kings.  Only  the  pure  in  heart  shall  see  God. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


THE    FEAST   AND    THE    DIVORCE. 


"  The  king  was  on  his  throne. 

The  Satraps  throng'd  the  hall, 
A  thousand  bright  lamps  shone 
O'er  that  high  festival !" 


"  I  am  a  slave,  a  favor' d  slave  at  best, 
To  share  his  splendor,  and  seem  very  blest ; 
When  wearier  of  these  fleeting  charms  and  me, 
There  yawns  the  sack, — and  yonder  rolls  the  sea. 
What!  am  I  then  a  toy  for  dotard's  play, 
To  wear  but  till  the  gilding  frets  away  ?" 

Byron. 

WE  are  now  to  attend  a  royal  feast  at  the  Palace  of 
Aliasuerus  in  Susa.  The  Greek  authors  all  agree  that 
the  Persians  were  remarkable  for  luxury  and  magnifi 
cence  in  their  palaces  and  at  their  entertainments. 
Their  resources  were  gathered  by  commerce  from 
Greece  and  Spain,  and  the  Islands  of  the  Mediterranean. 
A  trade  had  long  existed  between  Tyre,  Sidon  and  Pal 
myra,  by  caravans  with  Africa  and  Persia.  They 
abounded  in  ebony,  ivory,  cotton,  linen,  wool,  gold, 
spices  and  slaves.  The  Persians  in  the  days  of  Esther 


94  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

were  masters  of  all  the  wealth  and  trade  that  remained 
of  the  cities  and  empires  that  had  existed  before  them, 
from  India  to  Ethiopia.  They  used  the  cotton  cloths 
of  the  Indus,  the  lion  hides  and  leopard  skins  of  Africa^ 
the  camels  of  the  Arabs,  and  the  chariots  of  the  Liby 
ans,  Babylonians  and  Egyptians.  Every  traveler  who 
visits  the  ruins  of  the  early  periods  of  the  Persians,  is 
struck  with  amazement  at  the  grandeur,  and  size  and 
magnificence  of  their  royal  residences.  Heeren  has  a 
diagram  of  the  sculptures  that  represent  the  festival 
hall,  reception  hall,  and  audience  chamber,  the  king's 
house,  queen's  apartments,  sanctuary  and  banqueting 
room  of  the  kings  of  Persia.  Imagination  cannot  pic 
ture  a  sight  more  imposing  than  the  vast  forest  of  the 
solitary,  mutilated  gigantic  pillars,  colonnades  and  obe 
lisks  of  Karnak,  and  such,  or  but  little,  if  at  all  infe 
rior,  was  the  style  of  the  buildings  of  the  Persian  capi 
tals.  The  royal  garden  pavilion  at  Ispahan,  with  its 
numerous  columns  and  rich  embroideries  and  hangings, 
may  possibly  give  some  idea  of  the  garden  of  the  Icing's 
palace  at  Susa.  History  records  that  on  several  occa 
sions  Persian  kings  have  feasted  as  many  as  five  thou 
sand  men  at  once,  and  at  an  expense  of  two  hundred 
talents.  So  onerous  was  the  expense  of  providing  for 
Xerxes'  table,  that  Herodotus  relates  that  a  poet  of  Ab- 
dera  called  upon  the  people  to  offer  sacrifices  with 
thanksgiving  to  the  gods,  that  it  was  not  the  custom  of 
Xerxes  to  take  two  meals  in  one  day,  for  his  dinner  was 
as  much  as  they  could  possibly  provide  for,  and  if  he 
had  taken  a  notion  to  have  supper  too,  they  would  all 
have  been  utterly  ruined.  Lib.  vii.  It  is  in  evidence 
then  that  the  Persians  were  in  possession  of  every  thing 


PERSIAN    POMP   AND    LUXURY.  95 

required  for  such  feasting  and  display  as  are  described 
in  our  text.  They  had  all  sorts  of  musical  instruments, 
and  glass  vessels,  both  cut  and  ground,  mirrors,  em 
broidery  and  tapestry  of  many  kinds,  and  Herrnione 
purple,  and  were  acquainted  with  the  use  of  iron  and 
bronze,  and  had  gold  and  silver  and  jewels  in  great 
abundance.  Oriental  luxury  is  proverbial,  but  espe 
cially  that  of  the  Persian  kings.  No  eastern  monarchs 
have  ever  surpassed,  perhaps  none  have  equalled  them 
in  show  or  grandeur,  or  pompous  titles.  "The  great 
king,"  or  the  "king  of  kings/'  and  divine  honors 
were  their  recognized  titles  and  dues.  The  well  re 
membered  line  of  Horace, 

"  Persicos  odi,  puer,  apparatus." 

"  I  tell  thee  boy,  that  I  detest 
The  grandeur  of  a  Persian  feast," 

well  expresses  the  common  feeling  in  his  day  in  regard 
to  Persian  luxury  and  pride. 

Dr.  Russel,  in  his  history  of  Aleppo,  gives  an  elabo 
rate  description  of  an  Eastern  house  and  pavilion, 
which,  in  every  particular,  justifies  the  whole  descrip 
tion  of  Ahasuerus'  palace,  as  given  in  the  Bible.  Sir 
John  Chardin  also  describes  ruins  at  Persepolis  in 
which  were  pillars,  columns,  and  apartments,  like  those 
of  the  king's  house  at  Susa.  It  is  common,  in  the 
East,  to  extend  a  covering  of  canvass  lined  with  calico, 
or  striped  silk,  over  the  court  yard  where  a  feast  is 
given,  to  keep  off  the  sun.  Such  a  custom,  at  enter 
tainments,  is  often  seen  in  Birinah,  and  in  Calcutta. 
Indeed  we  have  seen  substantially  the  same  thing  at  Se- 
bastopol  fetes,  Fourth  of  July  celebrations,  and  even  at 


96  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

cainp  meetings.  And  in  the  Colisseum,  or  Flavian 
Amphitheater  at  Eome,  one  may  see,  to  this  day,  the 
marks  on  the  walls  of  the  masts,  or  scaffolds,  which 
were  erected  when  that  area  was  covered  with  an  awn 
ing,  as  it  was  when  their  shows  were  exhibited  to  the 
people. 

The  precise  occasion  of  Ahasuerus'  feast  is  not  stated. 
The  Chaldee  Targuni  says  it  was  in  commemoration  of 
the  suppression  of  a  most  dangerous  rebellion.  Others 
think  that  it  was  in  honor  of  his  having  triumphed 
over  his  competitors  for  the  throne  —  Artabanes  and  the 
Bactrians — or  that  it  was  in  honor  of  his  having  qui 
eted  the  disturbances  that  grew  out  of  his  father's  as 
sassination.  Some  think  that  it  was  intended  to  cele 
brate  his  victories  in  Egypt  and  Asia  Minor.  And 
others,  to  commemorate  the  dedication  of  Susa  as  one 
of  the  royal  capitals.  Whatever  it  was  designed  to 
commemorate,  it  was  a  proclamation  that  he  was  the 
absolute  possessor  of  the  vast  Persian  empire,  and  that 
he  was  at  peace  with  all  the  world.  And  while  it  was 
commemorative  of  glorious  achievements,  it  would 
serve  also  to  animate  his  soldiers,  gratify  his  officers  and 
allied  princes,  and  prepare  them  for  future  exploits. 
Men  are  but  little  more  than  children  all  their  lives. 
If  they  are  not  engaged  in  war,  they  must  nave  fetes 
and  feasts.  It  is  on  this  principle  that  fairs,  fire  com 
panies  and  the  like,  besides  their  intrinsic  utility,  are 
of  great  use  in  working  off  surplus  excitement,  and  so 
preventing  social  or  civil  disturbances.  The  French 
Emperor  understands  this  subject  well,  and  so  did  old 
Ahasuerus.  Accordingly  he  made  a  feast  worthy  of 
himself,  and  of  his  empire.  It  was  an  extraordinary 


THE    GREAT   FEAST.  97 

display  of  his  wealth  before  his  nobility  and  the  princes 
of  all  the  conquered  provinces — pomp  so  extraordinary 
had  never  before  been  seen  in  the  world  —  such  rich 
canopies,  gorgeous  curtains,  tall  columns,  and  rich 
stuffs  suspended  in  festoons,  golden  couches,  tcsselated 
floors,  beds  of  gold  and  silver,  overlaid  or  studded  with 
gold  and  silver  —  divans  such  only  as  Orientals  can 
make  —  a  feast  and  a  display  compared  with  which  all 
other  feasts  and  pomps  seem  nothing  better  than  fam 
ine  and  poverty.  There  was  a  whole  world  of  food  — 
meats  and  drinks  —  and  that  for  half  of  the  year  for 
guests  from  far  and  near — from  a  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven  provinces.  It  has  been  usual,  in  all  ages,  to 
celebrate  victories  and  the  accession  of  a  new  sovereign 
to  the  throne  by  acts  of  clemency  and  feasting.  In 
China  it  is  the  custom  to  have  three  years  of  mourning 
on  the  death  of  an  emperor,  during  which  no  public 
feasts  can  be  held;  but,  at  the  expiration  of  this  pe 
riod,  the  succeeding  monarch  gives  an  inauguration 
festival  of  very  great  magnificence. 

The  feast  of  Ahasuerus  was  not  like  that  of  Bel- 
shazzer,  Dan.  v,  to  profane  the  sacred  vessels,  nor 
defy  the  God  of  the  Hebrews,  nor  was  it  murderous 
like  Herod's,  nor  like  Mehemct  Ali's  feast  of  death  to 
the  Mamelukes.  Nor  was  there  any  compulsory  drink 
ing,  nor  mixed  dancing.  The  waltz  was  never  known 
at  a  Persian  court,  nor  would  it  be  tolerated  for  a  mo 
ment  in  any  Oriental  palace.  And  the  drinking  was 
according  to  law;  and  none  did  conpel :  for  so  the 
king  had  appointed  to  all  the  officers  of  his  house,  that 
they  should  do  according  to  every  man's  pleasure. 
There  was  genuine  politeness  at  the  king's  feast  in  re- 
5 


98  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

gard  to  drinking.  It  was  according  to  law.  It  was  a 
Greek  custom  to  compel  every  guest  to  keep  the  round 
or  leave  the  company.  The  rule  was  drink  or  be  gone, 
and  surely  the  latter  was  far  the  safest  and  best.  The 
Romans  made  some  advance  toward  the  politeness  of 
the  Persians  in  choosing  a  ruler  of  the  feast.  He  was 
chosen  by  the  casting  of  a  dice,  and  called  the  arbiter 
bibendi,  and  his  regulations  were  supreme.  It  was  his 
duty  to  suit  each  guest  with  the  wine  he  preferred,  and 
to  mingle  water  with  the  drink  of  a  guest  who  was 
about  to  become  too  much  excited.  See  Hor.  Sat.  lib. 
ii,  and  Latin  poets.  In  health,  man's  best  drink  is  a 
little  water.  But  if  advanced  in  life,  or  afflicted  with 
oft  infirmities  and  a  weak  stomach,  like  Timothy's,  or 
if  from  the  pressure  of  good  society,  wine  as  used,  then 
true  politeness,  as  well  as  morality  and  religion,  forbids 
the  absurd  practice  of  urging  people  to  drink,  or  to  eat, 
what  is  not  agreeable  to  them,  or  more  than  is  to  their 
taste.  It  is  cruelty — it  is  diabolical  to  over  persuade 
or  allure  a  friend  —  especially  a  youth,  into  any  excess, 
either  of  eating  or  drinking.  We  must  be  temperate 
ourselves,  in  all  things,  and  do  all  we  can  to  make 
others  so  also. 

The  length  of  this  feast  is  not  incredible.  We  have 
parallels.  In  modern  times,  we  read  of  feasts  in  Persia 
continuing  one  hundred  and  eighty  days.  We  read  also 
of  a  Chinese  Emperor,  who  frequently  gave  feasts  that 
continued  one  hundred  and  twenty  days.  The  apoc 
ryphal  Judith  says  that  Nabuchadnosor  kept  a  feast  at 
Nineveh  for  a  hundred  and  twenty  days,  in  honor  of 
his  victory  over  Arphaxed.  And,  according  to  Athe- 
naus,  lib.  iv:  13,  Deip.  Ariamnes  undertook  to  feast 


WOMEN    IN    THE   EAST.  99 

the  whole  Gaulish  nation  for  a  year,  and  did  actually 
succeed  in  supplying  them  during  a  whole  year  with 
tents,  meat  and  wine.  The  feast  of  king  Ahasuerus 
was  a  double  one.  First,  to  the  princes  and  nobles,  for 
one  hundred  and  eighty  days,  and  when  these  days 
lucre  expired,  the  Icing  made  a  feast  unto  all  the 
people  that  were  present  in  Shushan,  loth  great  and 
small,  seven  days.  And  also  Vashti,  the  queen,  made 
a  feast  for  the  women,  in  the  royal  house  which  be 
longed  to  king  Ahasuerus.  There  is  no  difficulty  in 
our  story,  growing  out  of  the  polygamy  and  exclu- 
siveness  of  the  harem  of  eastern  princes.  For,  though 
they  had  several  wives,  they  had  only  one  queen. 
The  patriarchs  and  Hebrew  kings  had  several  seconda 
ry  wives — concubines,  who  were  really  their  wives — 
but  only  the  children  of  one,  the  first  wife,  could  in 
herit  the  birthright  or  the  crown.  David  and  Solomon 
had  but  one  queen.  The  Sultan  of  Turkey  may  have 
ninety  wives,  but  there  can  be  but  one  Sultana.  Nor 
is  there  any  want  of  proof  that  ancient  oriental  queens 
were  crowned,  as  Vashti  and  Esther  were.  The  wife 
of  Mithridates  was  strangled  with  her  own  diadem, 
which  was  fastened  with  white  and  purple  bands 
around  the  head.  But  this  was  by  no  means  the  last 
time  that  a  crown  cost  a  head.  They  are  always  dan 
gerous,  but  they  were  especially  so  to  English  queens, 
in  the  days  of  Henri/  the  Eighth.  Observe,  also,  that, 
according  to  oriental  custom,  Yashti  feasts  with  her 
women  in  the  female  apartments,  while  the  king  feasts 
in  the  court  of  the  royal  gardens.  Women  did  not 
mingle  with  the  men  in  public  as  with  us,  except  on 
some  special  occasions.  The  king  held  his  feast  in  the 

5A 


100  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

court  of  the  gardens,  because  no  room  was  large  enough, 
and  because)  in  that  climate,  it  was  more  pleasant. 
The  Orientals  are  fond  of  gardens,  and  of  feasting  out 
of  doors.  "  The  sweet  waters"  of  Asia  and  of  Europe 
are  favorite  resorts  for  the  ladies  of  Constantinople. 
These  are  public  gardens,  chiefly  used  for  walking, 
smoking  and  eating.  The  ladies  monopolize  them,  un 
der  the  guardianship  of  eunuchs.  Open  courts  are 
common  in  eastern  houses.  Such  courts  were  often 
paved  with  colored  marbles  or  painted  tiles,  and  hence 
our  Mosaic,  that  is,  Musive  work,  for  I  believe  it  is  ad 
mitted  the  Hornans  borrowed  it  from  the  Greeks,  and 
the  Greeks  from  the  Asiatics ;  and  if  the  Romans  got 
it  from  the  Etruscans  and  Latins,  they  learned  it  from 
the  Egyptians. 

To  what  extent  the  king's  brain  became  wild  with 
"  wine  and  wassail,"  as  the  flashing  goblet  circulated, 
is  not  apparent.  He  was,  however,  seized  with  the 
desire  to  have  the  queen  before  him,  with  the  crown 
royal — all  in  her  jewelled  robes  and  with  her  diadem  on, 
to  sliow  the  people  and  the  princes  her  beauty,  for  she 
was  fair  to  look  on.  No  doubt  he  considered  her  the 
greatest  treasure  of  his  kingdom.  He  seemed  to  have 
designed  to  shut  up  the  feast  by  the  dazzling  sight  of 
the  queen,  arrayed  in  all  her  sparkling  robes,  so  that 
his  princely  guests  might  go  away,  saying,  King  Ahas- 
uerus  is  richer  in  the  beauty  and  loveliness  of  his 
queen  than  in  all  the  treasures  of  his  one  hundred  and 
twenty  and  seven  provinces.  We  have  an  instance 
from  Herodotus  that  explains,  in  some  measure,  the 
king's  command  to  bring  in  the  queen.  He  tells  us 
that,  when  seven  Persians  were  sent  to  Amytas,  a  Gre- 


101 


cian  prince,  and  being  hospitably  entertained  by  him, 
as  the  Persians  began  to  drink,  they  said  to  him : 
"  Prince  of  Macedonia,  it  is  a  custom  with  us  Persians, 
whenever  we  have  a  public  entertainment,  to  introduce 
our  concubines  and  young  wives. " 

The  Targum's  rendering,  that  the  king  commanded 
to  bring  the  queen  into  his  presence,  naked,  is  not  at 
all  probable,  and  seems  to  me  to  be  positively  contra 
dicted  by  the  text — to  bring  the  queen  before  the  king, 
with  the  crown  royal. 

But  when  the  seven  chamberlains  that  served  in  the 
presence  of  the  king  brought  his  command  to  the  queen, 
did  she  appear  before  him  ?  Astonishing  !  The  queen 
Vashti  refused  to  come  at  the  Jcing's  commandment  by 
his  chamberlains.  How  can  she  justify  herself  for  such 
disobedience?  Perhaps  she  thought  within  herself, 
'for  more  than  six  months  the  king  has  been  carrying 
on  this  revelry,  and  I  and  my  women  have  had  our 
feasting  among  ourselves  in  our  apartments.  I  am  sure 
if  the  king  were  at  himself,  he  would  not  have  sent  me 
such  a  commandment.  It  will  not  really  honor  him  to 
gratify  this  foolish  humor  of  his;  and  when  he  comes 
to  sober  reflection  he  will  thank  me  for  saving  him  from 
the  disgrace  of  having  made  such  an  exhibition  of  me. 
It  is  not  the  king,  but  the  wine  that  is  in  him,  that  sent 
the  chamberlains  to  me  with  this  extraordinary  mes 
sage.  And  as  the  wit  is  out  when  the  wine  is  in,  so 
also  I  fear  all  prudence  is  lost.  There  is  no  knowing 
what  excesses  are  going  on  in  the  royal  gardens — what 
insults  may  be  offered  to  me.  The  king's  commandment 
is  unusual,  unsafe,  needless  and  immodest.  I  will  not 
go/  Well,  proud  queen,  we  are  astonished  at  your  re- 


102  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

fusal.  We  sympathise  with  your  modest  and  virtuous 
reflections,  but  we  cannot  approve  of  your  disobedience. 
The  king  has  not  transcended  his  lawful  power  in  send 
ing  for  you.  It  is  according  to  the  laws  and  constitu 
tion  of  the  empire.  Nor  has  he  commanded  you  to  sin 
against  your  conscience  as  to  any  religious  scruples. 
And  have  you  well  considered  also  that  the  wrath  of  a 
king  is  terrible — especially  of  a  royal  despotic  husband  ? 
Do  you  remember  that  the  blood  once  inflamed  by  strong 
drink  is  easily  made  to  boil  with  rage,  even  toward 
those  that  were  most  tenderly  loved  but  a  few  moments 
before?  Do  you  think  how  you  are  mortifying  his 
pride — eclipsing  all  his  glory — in  the  presence  of  all 
the  princes  and  people  of  his  vast  empire?  Do  you 
suppose,  however  much  he  loves  you,  that  he  can  allow 
himself  to  receive  such  a  slight,  at  such  a  time  and  be 
fore  such  a  company,  from  a  woman,  even  if  she  is  his 
queen?  You  cannot  suppose  for  a  moment  that  the 
son  of  Xerxes  and  sovereign  of  such  an  empire  can 
allow  his  nobles  and  guests  to  retire  from  such  a  feast, 
saying,  "How  poor  and  miserable  a  man  is  this  great 
Ahasuerus.  He  may  govern  one  hundred  and  seven 
and  twenty  provinces,  but  he  cannot  govern  one  woman. 
He  rules  an  empire  from  India  to  Ethiopia,  but  he  can 
not  rule  his  own  bed-chamber/' 

I  do  not  know  queen  Vashti's  motives — I  am  not 
able  to  fathom  her  disposition.  She  was  beautiful,  and 
she  was  a  queen*  It  is  not  at  all  strange,  therefore, 
that  she  had  a  will  of  her  own.  The  fair  sex  are  seldom 
wanting  in  that.  But  I  do  not  find  any  justification  of 


*  Vushti  is  a  Persian  name,  and  signifies  a  beautiful  woman;  and  the  word 
translated  ladies,  in  this  history,  is  Saroth,  our  Sarah,  and  means  princesses' 


VASHTI   NOT   EXCUSED.  103 

her  disobedience,  unless  the  king  had  commanded  her 
to  do  something  that  was  contrary  to  law,  and  was  con 
trary  to  her  sense  of  duty  to  Grod.  But  the  records  do 
not  favor  any  such  idea.  We  admire  the  queen's 
courage  and  modesty,  for  though  beautiful  she  was  not 
vain  or  bold;  for  if  she  had  been  she  would  not  have 
lost  such  an  opportunity  of  displaying  her  charms.  And 
she  must  have  been  a  woman  also  of  great  physical  and 
moral  courage,  or  she  would  not  have  given  up  so  much 
grandeur,  and  incurred  the  risk  of  losing  her  head  as 
well  as  her  crown  ;  for  she  could  not  have  been  ignorant 
of  what  would  probably  be  the  result  of  her  refusal, 
and  the  wonder  is  that  the  royal  counsellors  were  satis 
fied  with  taking  away  her  crown.  Her  conduct  could 
scarcely  have  been  construed  into  anything  short  of 
treason,  for  as  a  Persian  subject,  how  could  she  refuse 
obedience  to  the  king?  But  I  am  unwilling  to  believe 
that  Yashti  is  such  a  rara  avis  in  terris — that  a  black 
swan  is  not  half  so  rare  a  bird  as  many  interpreters  will 
have  it.  For  there  are  many  women  who  would  sur 
render  a  crown  rather  than  their  character,  and  give 
up  life  itself  rather  than  sin  against  their  sense  of  right 
and  duty.  No  mere  prudery,  however,  can  justify  her 
disobedience.  Unless  it  was  a  sin  to  obey,  it  was  a  sin 
for  her  to  disobey.  "It  is  not/'  says  the  pious  bishop 
Hall,  "for  a  good  wife  to  judge  of  her  husband's  will, 
but  to  execute  it;  neither  to  go  into  a  curious  inquisi 
tion,  for  the  reasons  of  an  enjoined  charge,  much  less 
into  a  resistance;  but  in  a  hood-winked  simplicity  she 
must  follow  whither  she  is  led,  (even  if  it  is  to  Cali 
fornia,)  as  one  that  holds  her  chief  praise  to  consist  in 
subjection  to  her  own  husband. " 


104  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

Therefore  ivas  the  king  very  wroth,  and  his  anger 
burned  in  him — is  an  oriental  phrase  for  intense  anger. 
It  occurs  elsewhere  in  the  Bible.  But  in  the  midst  of 
his  rage  he  determined  to  abide  by  the  law,  and  by  the 
judgment  of  those  who  knew  the  law,  and  what  it  became 
him  to  do  in  this  emergency,  for  though  possessed  of  su 
preme  power,  he  was  obliged  by  custom  to  consult  the 
first  men  of  the  kingdom,  which  saw  his  face,  and  who 
knew  the  common  law  of  the  empire,  and  who  could  cite 
precedents  and  tell  him  how  other  kings  had  done  in 
similar  cases.  And  so  it  was  that  after  consultation  with 
the  wise  men  which  knew  the  times,  for  so  was  the  king's 
manner,  he  made  a  law  in  the  heat  of  passion  which  he 
would  have  been  glad  afterward  had  it  never  been  made. 
The  wise  men,  verse  13,  were  astrologers  and  magicians, 
such  as  were  common  in  Egypt,  Babylon,  and  the  East — 
men  who  professed  to  be  able  to  foretell  future  events, 
and  to  frame  suitable  laws  for  the  government  of 
princes  and  empires,  by  reading  the  past  and  the  future 
from  the  stars.  Vitringa  thinks,  and  no  doubt  correctly, 
that  these  wise  men  were  the  historiographers  of  the 
empire — well  versed  in  ancient  history — so  that  they 
could  tell  the  king  what  laws  and  customs  had  pre 
vailed,  and  how  kings  were  wont  to  do  in  such  per 
plexing  cases.  According  to  Juvenal,  Satire  vi,  the 
Orientals  were  so  superstitious  that  they  believed  what 
ever  came  from  the  mouth  of  their  astrologers  issued 
from  the  fountain  of  Ammon.  These  wise  men  were 
his  privy  council.  Consult  chap,  vi :  13.  1  Chron.  xii : 
32.  Isa.  iii:  2.  Ezra  vii:  14. 

And  Memucan  answered.  Orton  thinks  this  young 
est  State  counsellor  was  intensely  selfish  in  his  advice 


THE    CAUDLE   DECREE.  105 

to  the  king — that  he  had  more  authority  in  the  king's 
cabinet  than  he  had  in  his  own  castle,  and  that,  ac 
cordingly,  he  wished  to  make  a  great  State  affair  of  the 
queen's  disobedience,  that  he  might  have  a  royal  edict 
to  deliver  himself  from  domestic  tyranny.     His  opinion 
seems  to  me,  however,  a  poor  piece  of  argument.     The 
queen's  conduct,  in  all  other  respects,  seems  to  have  been 
so  dutiful,  that  no  charge  could  be  brought  against  her 
but  this  one  act  of  disobedience ;  but  from  it  he  drew 
a  general  inference,  that  if  the  queen's  disobedience  was 
not  resented,  all  the  Persian  ladies  would  follow  her  ex 
ample,  and  there  would  be  a  general  domestic  insurrec 
tion  throughout  the  empire.     His  associates  were  either 
so  drunk  that  they  did  not  understand  his   counsel,  or 
were  unable  to  give  one  of  their  own,  or  were  so  anxious 
to  make  the  slavery  of  their  harems  still  more  perfect, 
that  they  all  assented  to  it,  and  the  king  issued  a  de 
cree  accordingly.      His  argument  ran  from  the  greater 
to  the  less — if  the  queen  herself  is  divorced  for  one  act 
of  disobedience,  and  loses  her  crown,  much  more  must 
all  wives  of  inferior  rank  submit  to  their  lords.     The 
nobles  evidently  fanned  the    flame  of  the  monarch's 
wrath  with  a  hearty  good  will.     They  wished  a  with 
ering    rebuke — a   striking   example   to    go  from    the 
throne — so  that  all  their  Mrs.  Caudles — all  their  strong- 
minded  wives  might,  at  once,  be  made  to  obey  implicitly 
their    lordly  humors.     They  persuaded  the  king  that, 
unless  he    acted   promptly  and  very  decidedly,  there 
would  be  daily  revolutions  in  every  household  in  his 
kingdom,  and  though  they  prevailed  in  having  the  de 
cree  issued,  I  have  no  idea  they  gained  anything  by  it. 
There  were,  and  there  always  have  been,  and,  I  pre- 

5B 


106       THE  HEBREW- PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

sume,  there  always  will  be  till  the  milleniuni,  domestic 
as  well  as  civil  and  national  revolutions. 

"  Let  there  go,  therefore/'  said  they,  "  a  royal  com 
mandment  from  the  king,  and  let  it  be  written  among  the 
laws  of  the  Persians  and  the  Medes,  that  it  be  altered  not." 
So  wise  and  so  perfect  did  they  esteem  themselves,  that 
they  held  that  their  laws  could  never  be  amended  or  re 
pealed.  This  was  ignorance  equalled  only  by  presump 
tion.  Stability  in  laws  is,  however,  a  great  blessing,  for 
frequent  changes  are  almost  as  bad  as  no  laws.  With 
us,  happily,  it  is  a  part  of  our  Constitution  and  laws  that 
they  may  be  amended  or  repealed,  in  a  constitutional 
and  peaceful  way.  But  with  the  Persians,  if  it  was  once 
entered  in  the  records  of  the  empire  that  Vashti  was 
no  longer  queen,  and  that  every  man  should  bear  rule 
in  his  own  house,  then  there  was  no  door  open  for  dis  • 
pute  or  change.  In  this  royal  decree  against  insubor 
dination  and  Caudle-lecturing,  there  is  much  that  is 
true  and  much  that  was  tyrannical;  but  the  decree  itself 
was  unnecessary  and  unwise.  A  modern  annotator  says, 
it  is  one  of  the  most  amusing  things  in  all  history  to  look 
at  the  king  of  Persia  and  his  jovial  compatriots — the 
sages  of  the  greatest  monarchy  on  earth — issuing  a  de 
cree,  in  all  the  known  languages  of  the  day,  that  every 
man  should  bear  rule  in  his  own  house.  Doubtless, 
when  this  decree  was  published,  there  was  an  "  inex 
tinguishable  burst  of  shrill  merriment  through  every 
one  of  the  hundred  and  twenty-seven  provinces/'  As 
far,  however,  as  this  decree  was  proper,  it  was  substanti 
ally  nothing  more  than  a  Persian  edition  of  the  great 
Creator's  will.  The  Persian's  edict  did  not  add  anything 
to  its  authority.  It  originally  came  from  God.  It  is  a 


LOVE   IS    THE   LAW.  107 

necessary  and  proper  law.  Common  sense,  from  the  foun 
dation  of  the  world,  in  every  nation,  even  among  savage 
tribes,  has  taught  the  necessity  and  propriety  of  a  man 
ruling  as  head  of  his  own  household.  The  unalterable 
decree  of  the  king  of  Persia  is  also  the  unchangeable  law 
of  Heaven.  "  Let  every  man  love  his  wife  as  himself, 
and  the  wife  see  that  she  reverence  her  husband. " 
Eph.  v:  33.  u  Wives  submit  yourselves  unto  your  own 
husbands,  as  it  is  fit  in  the  Lord.  Husbands  love 
your  wives,  and  be  not  bitter  against  them/7  Col.  iii : 
18,  19. 

1.  And  does  not  this  history  teach  us,  that  the  great 
law  of  domestic  happiness  is  love  ?  No  Persian  decrees 
are  required  to  execute  the  mandates  of  love,  nor  can 
any  royal  commandment  make  a  household  happy  with 
out  it.  Woman  is  man's  other  self.  She  is  his  great 
est  blessing  and  his  chief  joy,  both  in  sunshine  and  in 
sorrow.  Her  society  is  necessary  to  correct  his  pride 
and  selfishness,  and  to  refine  his  manners  and  elevate 
his  feelings  and  hopes.  A  palace  as  magnificent  as  that 
of  the  Czar  without  a  woman  is  but  a  miserable  garret, 
to  shiver  and  freeze  in,  both  as  to  body  and  soul.  And 
a  log  cabin;  with  a  true  woman's  love,  is  a  palace  worth 
more  than  that  of  king  Ahasuerus.  An  English  wit, 
(Jerrold,)  says  that  tea  with  the  flowers  and  scents  of 
the  warm  East  has  exercised  so  great  a  social  influence 
upon  the  masses  of  the  English  people,  that  it  is  not 
very  easy  to  say  too  much  in  praise  of  it.  It  has  civ 
ilized  brutish  and  turbulent  homes,  saved  the  drunkard 
from  his  doom,  and  to  many  a  mother  given  cheerful, 
peaceful  thoughts,  in  a  home  that  otherwise  would  have 


108        THE  HEBREW- PERSIAN.  QUEEN. 

been  forlorn  and  wretched.  But  I  fancy  that  in  this 
rhapsody  of  the  humanising  mission  of  tea,  he  always 
included  the  refining  influence  of  woman.  For  tea 
without  her  delicate  hand  and  inspiring  presence,  is 
scarcely  better  than  the  miserable  weed  that  rivals  it  in 
public  favor.  It  is  only  when  woman — a  lovely  woman/' 
presides  at  the  urn,  surrounded  by  the  olive  plants  of 
wedded  love,  that  I  can  see  in  the  stream  of  steam  rol 
ling  from  the  kettle  the  fallen  idols  of  the  Pagan  bar 
barism  of  the  East  tumbling  down,  and  the  beauteous 
temples  of  truth,  freedom  and  piety,  rising  in  their 
stead. 

The  true  way  for  all  queens  to  rule  is  to  "  stoop  to 
conquer."  Let  their  husbands  call  themselves  as  much 
as  they  please  athe  lords  of  creation/'  and  let  them 
seem  to  hold  the  reins,  but  it  is  theirs  to  tell  them  how 
to  drive.  This  is  the  more  excellent  way.  The  dis 
pute  about  the  sphere  of  the  sexes  is  as  uriphilosophi- 
cal  as  it  is  unscriptural.  It  is  God's  will  that  man 
should  be  the  head  and  woman  the  heart  of  society. 
If  he  is  its  strength,  she  is  its  solace.  If  he  is  its 
wisdom,  she  is  its  grace  and  consolation.  And  where 
there  is  the  proper  view  of  marriage,  or  of  the  sacred 
duties  that  God  requires  of  husband  and  wife,  there  is 
no  strife  as  to  who  shall  govern.  Both  rule.  The  word 
of  God  is  exceedingly  plain  on  this  subject.  Domestic 
strife  is  always  a  great  evil,  but  it  beoomes  doubly  so 
when  it  occurs  before  company,  as  happened  with  the 
king  of  Persia,  and  when  professed  friends  come  in  and 
make  bad  worse.  It  is  then  the  wound  becomes  in 
curable. 

2.  Let  us  learn  to  guard  against  all  excesses,  not  only 


SIN   OF   RASHNESS.  109 

in  feasting  and  in  the  loss  of  time,  but  of  feeling  and 
passion.  How  inconsiderate,  how  rash,  how  sinful  was 
Herod's  oath  and  terrible  decree  against  John  the 
Baptist!  And  scarcely  less  wicked  were  the  king's 
unjust  and  cruel  proceedings  against  his  wife.  And 
because  of  unjust  and  sinful  separations  between  hus 
bands  and  wives  our  land  mourneth,  and  our  State  has 
become  a  hissing  and  a  term  of  reproach.  I  know  not 
where  to  find  language  to  describe  the  sin  and  evils  of 
divorce  as  it  prevails  in  our  day.  According  to  law 
marriage  is  merely  a  civil  contract,  but  that  does  not  allow 
us  to  forget  the  sacredncss  of  the  tic  that  binds  husband 
and  wife  together,  nor  has  any  legislature  the  right  to 
separate  them,  except  as  the  word  of  God  allows.  The 
tendency  of  the  age  seems  to  remove  all  restraint  upon 
marriage,  which  of  course  is  contrary  to  good  manners 
and  morality,  and  contrary  to  the  word  of  God. 

If  the  king  had  not  taken  counsel  of  his  own  hot 
blood,  and  of  his  wise  men  under  the  influence  of  wine, 
he  had  not  brought  upon  himself  a  world  of  trouble. 
A  single  word  spoken  in  anger,  or  an  act  done  under 
the  excitement  of  the  passions,  may  cause  a  lifetime  of 
repentence.  Constitutions  are  very  differently  con 
structed.  Men's  educations,  temperaments  and  circum 
stances  differ,  but  all  should  act  calmly  and  intelligibly, 
and  with  great  charity  toward  their  fellow  men.  It 
was  a  maxim  with  General  Jackson  to  take  much  time 
to  deliberate — to  think  out  the  right  resolution — but 
when  once  the  resolution  was  taken,  then  to  think  only 
of  executing  it. 

3.  How  emphatic  a  lesson  is  here  of  human  vanity! 
The  great  monarch  of  such  a  vast  empire  is  not  able  to 


110  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN   QUEEN. 

govern  himself.  And  all  the  grandeur  of  half  a  year's 
feasting  is  spoiled  by  the  disobedience  of  his  queen. 
This  was  the  dead  fly  in  his  pot  of  ointment.  One 
hundred  and  twenty-seven  provinces  did  not  satisfy  him. 
The  whole  earth  was  not  enough  for  one  for  whose 
mortal  remains  less  than  two  ells  have  long  since  been 
quite  sufficient.  The  pride  of  displaying  the  riches  of 
his  empire  was  "a  windy  happiness"  that  could  not  fill 
his  heart.  No  earthly  portion  can  satisfy  the  human 
soul,  for  it  was  made  in  the  image  of  God,  and  nothing 
but  God  in  Christ  can  now  make  it  happy. 

Ahasuerus'  feast  was  full  and  flowing  and  long,  but 
it  had  an  end,  and  where  now  is  all  its  glory  ?  And 
how  much  the  better  to-day  is  it  with  him  and  his 
courtiers  that  they  had  so  long  a  revelry  in  the  royal 
gardens !  What  does  it  matter  that  they  had  beds  of 
gold  and  silver,  and  feasted  and  laughed,  and  passed 
along  the  jest  and  the  song !  Great  was  the  confluence 
of  peoples  at  the  king's  tables,  but  they  are  all  gathered 
with  a  much  greater  assembly — the  congregation  of  the 
dead,  whose  sisters  are  worms,  and  whose  mother  is 
corruption.  Happy,  and  only  happy,  is  he  whose  sins 
are  forgiven,  whose  iniquity  is  pardoned,  and  who  has 
a  part  in  the  resurrection  of  the  just. 

4.  Alas !  that  so  lovely  a  place  as  a  garden  should 
have  been  the  scene  of  such  revelry  and  sinning.  A 
garden  is  associated  with  some  of  our  holiest  and  sad 
dest  thoughts.  Sin  fastened  on  our  race  in  a  garden. 
It  was  in  a  garden  the  curse  was  pronounced,  and  there 
too  the  great  promise  of  a  Redeemer  was  given.  And 
it  was  in  a  garden  the  Messiah  entered  the  lists  of  mor 
tal  combat  to  bruise  the  old  serpent's  head.  Our  gar- 


OUR   LOVELY   GARDENS.  Ill 

dens — would  that  we  had  many  more  of  them — that 
their  beauty  and  fragrance  might  lead  us  to  adore  the 
Creator,  and  to  pour  forth  to  Him  amid  his  glorious 
works  the  grateful,  cheerful  homage  of  the  heart.  In 
stead  then  of  making  our  gardens  the  scenes  of  sinful 
mirth  and  dissipation,  as  did  the  Persian  king,  let  us 
make  them  oratories  for  pious  breathings  to  heaven — 
let  them  give  us  thoughts  of  God  and  of  the  love -and 
sufferings  of  his  Son  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  to  Him  we 
owe  all  our  pleasures  in  the  creatures  and  gifts  of  Provi 
dence,  as  well  as  the  hope  of  eternal  life.  And  so  also 
let  the  garden  be  a  preacher  to  us  of  our  frailty.  Ver 
ily  at  our  best  estate  we  are  altogether  vanity.  We 
are  like  the  grass  that  springs  up  in  the  morning,  and 
is  cut  down  and  withered  in  the  evening.  Our  days  are 
few  and  full  of  sorrow.  Our  possessions  and  enjoy 
ments  here  below,  are  passing  away  as  the  tender  sigh- 
ings  of  the  evening  breeze  that  passes  over  our  garden 
plants.  All  our  gardens  of  delight  are  in  a  vale  of 
tears.  0  let  us  then  send  our  affections  up  before  hand 
to  heaven,  and  fix  them  upon  things  at  Grod's  right 
hand,  and  so  plant  them  in  the  Paradise  above,  that  in 
due  season,  we  may  be  transplanted  ourselves  from 
these  low  grounds  of  sorrow  to  the  shores  of  a  blissful 
immortality. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


ESTHER   CHOSEN    QUEEN. 


"  Sar.  I  speak  of  woman's  love. 

Mjjr. The  very  first 

Of  human  life  must  spring  from  woman's  breast. 
Your  first  small  words  are  taught  you  from  her  lips, 
Your  first  tears  quenched  by  her,  and  your  last  sighs 
Too  often  breathed  out  in  a  woman's  hearing, 
When  men  have  shrunk  from  the  ignoble  care 
Of  watching  the  last  hour." 

Byron's  Sardanapalus . 


il  In  youth  women  are  our  idols,  at  a  riper  age  our  compan 
ions,  in  old  age  our  nurses,  and  in  all  ages  our  friends." 

Lord  Bacon. 


WE  have  learned  something  of  Persia,  past  and  pre 
sent — as  it  was,  has  been  and  now  is — so  far  as  such 
brief  historical  items  were  thought  to  be  conducive  to 
the  proper  understanding  of  the  Book  of  Esther  and 
our  better  acquaintance  with  the  condition  of  the  He 
brews  at  the  time  of  the  Advent ;  and  we  have  made 
a  visit  to  Susa,  and  been  introduced  to  the  king  Ahas- 
uerus,  and  have  contemplated  his  empire  and  his  capi 
tal — the  extent,  riches  and  glory  of  his  vast  domin 
ions,  and  were  an  invited  guest  with  the  princes  of  his 


114  THE   HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

one  hundred  and  twenty -seven  provinces,  from  India  even 
unto  Ethiopia,  at  the  feast  which  he  gave  for  one  hun 
dred  and  four  score  days,  to  show  "  the  riches  of  his 
glorious  kingdom  and  the  honor  of  his  excellent  majes 
ty."  And  then  we  visited  the  queen,  feasting  with 
her  women  in  the  apartments  of  the  royal  house  that 
belonged  to  king  Ahasuerus,  and  we  saw  how  she  re 
ceived  the  king's  command  to  appear  before  him  "  with 
the  crown  royal,  to  show  the  people  and  the  princes  her 
beauty."  We  have  heard  her  haughty  and  firm  re 
fusal,  and  how  the  king  was  very  angry,  and  how  his 
cabinet  advised  her  immediate  divorce,  and  how  it  was 
done,  and  the  king  and  all  the  sages  of  Persia  and  Me 
dia  decreed,  by  a  royal  commandment  that  could  not 
be  altered,  and  how  it  was  written  and  sent  into  every 
province  and  to  every  people,  after  their  own  language, 
that  every  man  should  bear  rule  in  liis  oivn  house,  and 
that  all  ivives  throughout  all  the  empire  shall  give  to 
their  husbands  honor,  both  to  great  and  small. 

In  these  transactions  there  are  some  things  commend 
able  and  some  things  very  much  to  be  blamed.  It  must 
have  been  a  terrible  mortification  to  the  great  king 
Ahasuerus  at  such  a  time,  when  he  was  showing  his 
riches  and  the  power  of  Persia  and  Media  to  his  princes 
and  servants,  to  be  obliged  to  submit  to  such  disobe 
dience  in  his  queen.  "Is  this  the  man  of  a  thousand 
thrones?"  What  a  pity  that  he  who  governed  millions 
of  men  and  reigned  supreme  over  so  vast  an  empire 
could  not  govern  himself!  His  weakness  is  seen  in  his 
excessive  indulgence  in  wine  and  in  his  vanity,  and  in 
giving  such  a  command  at  such  a  time.  As  a  king 
and  as  a  husband,  it  was  his  honor  and  his  duty  to  be 


115 


a  covering  of  the  eyes  to  his  wife,  and  not  an  exposer 
of  her  modesty.  Gen.  xx:  16.  But  in  his  seeking 
advice  of  his  wise  men  there  is  something  commendable. 
Despot  as  he  was,  he  desired  everything  to  be  done 
according  to  law.  The  king,  though  excited  with  wine 
and  exceedingly  angry,  and  all-powerful,  would  not 
have  anything  done  contrary  to  the  usages  and  consti 
tution  of  his  empire.  Absalom's  folly  is  seen  in  the 
choice  of  his  counsellors,  and  Napoleon's  greatness  of 
genius  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  he  could  hear  all  his 
cabinet  had  to  say,  and  gather  up  all  the  varied  informa 
tion  they  had  to  give,  and  then  act  independently  upon 
his  own  judgment  and  without  hesitation.  As  a  general 
rule,  it  is  true  that  the  greater  the  power  the  greater 
the  need  of  advice  lest  it  be  abused,  and  yet  the  greater 
the  danger,  and  the  need  of  true  courage  to  give  it. 

Though  we  have  admired  the  beauty,  dignity  and 
courage  of  queen  Vashti,  we  have  not  been  able  to  ex 
cuse  her  disobedience,  as  most  interpreters  have  done. 
The  record  does  not  authorize  us  to  find  that  her  obe 
dience  would  have  been  a  sin  against  Grod,  and  therefore 
we  cannot  justify  it.  Her  divorce,  however,  was  hasty, 
cruel,  and  contrary  to  the  will  of  God  and  to  good 
morals.  Nor  is  it  long  till  the  king  has  leisure  to  repent 
of  what  he  had  done  in  wicked  haste.  When  the  wrath 
of  the  king  was  appeased  he  remembered  Vashti)  and 
ivhat  she  had  done,  and  what  was  decreed  against  her. 
And  no  doubt  now  he  would  have  been  glad  to  receive 
her  back  again  as  his  wife;  but  his  counsellors  knew 
very  well  if  this  was  done  it  would  cost  them  their 
heads;  therefore,  they  said,  " Let  there  be  fair  young 
virgins  sought  for  the  king,  and  let  the  maiden  that 


116        THE  HEBREW- PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

pleaseth  the  king  be  queen  instead  of  Vashti."  "And 
the  thing  pleased  the  king,  and  he  did  so."  Esther 
ii:  1,  4. 

In  the  advice  here  given  to  the  king  we  recognize 
the  voice  of  the  minister  Memucan.  You  remem 
ber  his  plea  for  divorcing  Vashti  was  that  it  was  neces 
sary  in  order  that  wives  should  be  made  to  honor  their 
husbands.  The  object  proposed  was  a  good  one. 
Every  man's  house  should  be  his  castle,  and  every  man 
should  be  lord  of  his  own  castle,  and  his  wife  and  chil 
dren  should  be  in  subjection  to  him.  Good  order  in 
families  undoubtedly  lies  at  the  foundation  of  a  well 
regulated  state.  But  husbands  should  be  careful  not  to 
give  unreasonable  commands.  They  ought  not  to  verge 
on  ground  that  is  in  itself  sinful  to  occupy.  Nothing 
is  more  revolting  to  a  refined  mind  than  family  quarrels 
or  domestic  bickerings.  Domineering  on  the  part  of 
either  husband  or  wife,  is  contrary  to  true  refinement 
and  to  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  and  to  the  express 
words  of  the  apostles.  The  consequences  of  such  in 
subordination  are  well  stated  by  Memucan.  "  If,"  says 
he,  "  wives  despise  their  husbands,  whom  they  ought 
to  reverence,  and  contend  for  dominion  over  them 
whom  they  ought  to  obey,  then  there  will  be  nothing 
but  insubordination  and  strife,  and  the  higher  in  society 
the  case  may  be,  that  is  an  example,  the  greater  will  its 
influence  be."  Though  this  statesman-courtier  had  a 
very  difficult  and  dangerous  post  to  fill — that  of  inter 
fering  between  a  man  and  his  wife,  and  of  helping  his 
Sovereign  to  forget  his  sorrow  for  abusing  one  queen 
by  taking  another,  yet  he  seems  to  have  had  courage 
and  skill  quite  sufficient  for  his  diflicult  task.  His 


MEMUCAN'S  CRAFTINESS.  117 

advice  was  highly  politic.  The  plan  he  proposed,  while 
it  would  serve  to  ingratiate  himself  into  the  king's 
favor,  by  counselling  him  to  follow  his  own  humor  in 
having  a  wife,  it  would  gratify  him  also  in  relieving  his 
grief  for  the  loss  of  the  old  queen  by  the  charms  of  a 
new  one.  Courtier-like,  he  was  careful  to  be  on  the 
winning  side.  His  incense  was  to  the  rising  sun,  not 
to  the  setting.  Mcmucan  would  have  been  a  fit  coun 
sellor  for  Henry  the  Eighth.  Josephus,  however,  thinks 
well  of  him,  and  pronounces  him  an  honest  man,  and 
sincerely  desirous  of  promoting  the  public  good  by 
securing  the  ends  of  justice,  which,  as  a  politician  in 
such  a  court,  was  not  an  easy  work.  Josephus  also  says 
that  Ahasuerus  was  sincerely  attached  to  Vashti,  and 
would  most  gladly  have  forgiven  this  offense,  if  he 
could  have  done  so  according  to  law,  or  consistently 
with  his  dignity  as  the  king  of  so  great  an  empire. 
And  no  doubt  Memucan  seeing  this  disposition  in  the 
king,  was  the  more  urgent  for  immediate  measures  to 
get  a  queen  instead  of  Vashti,  for  her  return  to  favor 
would  of  course  imply  his  ruin. 

The  measure  proposed  to  the  king  for  obtaining  a 
queen  instead  of  Yashti,  is  substantially  the  same  that 
is  used  for  replenishing  the  Harem  or  seraglio,  to  this 
day.     The    most  beautiful   throughout   the   land   are  A 
bought  or  selected  for  the  Harem,  without  regard  to  ) 
nationality,  or^nj  question  as  to  the  condition  of  their  ( 
birth,  whether  high  or  low,  free  or  slaves. 

In  tlie  East  the  regulation  of  the  harems  cf  princes 
and  rich  men  are  substantially  the  same  everywhere, 
and  have  been  but  little,  if  at  all  changed  since  the 
days  of  Solomon.  Even  the  restriction  of  the  Koran, 


118  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN   QUEEN. 

allowing  only  four  wives,  has  not  produced  much 
change,  for  it  places  no  limit  to  the  number  of  concu 
bines  or  secondary  wives.  In  Solomon's  harem  there 
were  seven  hundred  women  of  high  birth — <(  prin 
cesses/' — and  three  hundred  concubines,  making,  ex 
clusive  of  the  female  slaves  of  his  establishment,  which 
were  no  doubt  very  numerous,  one  thousand  wives  of 
the  first  and  second  classes.  These  wives  and  their 
attendants  occupied  apartments  of  their  own,  seldom  or 
never  seeing  each  other.  Solomon's  establishment  then 
must  have  been  very  large.  It  is  no  wonder  he  had 
need  for  the  gold  of  Ophir,  and  for  the  spices  and  gums 
and  ivory  of  the  whole  world.  But  even  great  as  his 
establishment  was,  we  are  not  altogether  without  paral 
lels.  It  has  been  stated  that  the  late  emperor  of  China 
had  three  thousand  women  in  his  seraglio,  many  of 
whom  it  is  probable,  he  never  saw.  The  usual  number 
in  the  establishment  of  the  great  Moguls  of  India,  was 
reckoned  at  a  thousand.  Sultan  Selim  is  said  to  have 
had  two  thousand  ;  the  Sultan  Achmed  three  thousand) 
and  the  Persian  king  Khosroes,  who  died  A.  D.  579, 
according  to  his  historian  had  twelve  thousand  females 
in  his  harem.  Our  Bible  word  concubine,  signifies  a 
female  occupying  a  middle  condition  between  wife  and 
slave.  She  lawfully  belonged  to  her  owner,  and  could 
claim  his  protection  as  a  secondary  wife,  and  could  not 
have  any  other  husband,  no  more  than  if  she  were  his 
only  wife.  Oriental  polygamy  is  altogether  a  different 
thing  from  the  free  love  system  of  our  day,  and  bad  as 
it  is,  it  is  not  so  corrupting. 

The  females  of  an  Oriental  seraglio  may  be  divided 
into  three  classes :  First,  The  favorites,  who,  without 


THE   WOMEN   OF   THE    HAREM.  119 

the  legal  rights  of  wives,  are  considered  as  such  of  the 
first  class.  If  one  of  these  becomes  the  mother  of  a 
son  who  is  acknowledged  as  the  heir  to  the  throne,  then 
this  mother  (wife)  is  the  sultana,  and  the  sovereign  and 
all  his  other  wives  must  own  her  as  the  queen.  This 
is  the  case  with  the  Sultan  of  Constantinople.  For  it 
is  a  part  of  the  state  policy  of  Turkey  that  the  Sultan 
can  never  marry,  but  may  keep  his  harem  filled  with 
women  who  have  no  political  or  civil  rights.  They  all 
enter  his  seraglio  as  slaves,  and  rise  only  in  his  favor 
as  they  have  children  or  gain  influence  over  him.  But 
there  can  never  be  but  one  sultana  at  a  time,  and  issue 
of  no  other  can  inherit  the  throne.  The  secondary 
wives,  or  concubines,  are  the  second  class;  and  the 
third  class  are  called  Odaliks,  or  as  it  is  in  French, 
Odalisques,  which  I  believe  is  a  Turkish  word,  signify 
ing  "slaves  of  the  household/'  These  are  the  female 
slaves  of  the  establishment  kept  for  the  pleasure  of  the 
prince  or  great  man.  They  ai  to  wait  their  time  for 
promotion,  and  although  it  may  and  does  not  come  to 
most  of  them,  yet  it  is  possible,  and  does  happen  to  one 
and  another. 

In  Persia  the  Shah  marries,  and  usually  contracts 
such  alliances  with  ladies  of  high  family,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  strengthening  his  hand.  It  was  with  this  view 
that  the  great  Zenobia,  Queen  of  Palmyra,  designed  to 
wed  one  of  her  daughters  with  the  son  of  the  terrible 
Sapor  of  Persia,  that  she  might  the  better  provide 
against  the  growing  power  and  eastern  conquests  of 
imperial  Rome  under  Aurelian.  It  is  true,  however, 
that  the  Persian  sovereigns  both  in  ancient  and  modern 
times  have  been  restless  and  dissatisfied  with  this  re- 


120  THE   HEBREW-PERSIAN   QUEEN. 

straint,  and  that  they  have  sometimes  raised  to  the 
highest  honors  such  as  have  entered  their  harem  as 
slaves.  It  has  often  happened  in  Persia  and  other 
eastern  countries  that  other  causes  as  well  as  giving 
birth  to  an  heir  to  the  crown  have  raised  a  favorite  wife 
to  sovereignty.  And  perhaps  there  is  not  in  any  his 
tory  a  more  striking  illustration  of  this,  and  at  the  same 
time  one  more  appropriate  to  our  subject,  than  Catherine 
the  First  of  Russia,  wife  of  Peter  the  Great.  She  was  a 
Livonian  peasant  of  the  humblest  origin,  and  taken 
prisoner  at  the  sacking  of  a  town  in  Peter's  first  war 
with  Sweden,  and  afterwards  became  his  wife,  and  for 
her  great  services  to  him  and  the  army  on  the  Pruth, 
when  engaged  against  the  Turks,  was  crowned  with 
great  pomp  at  Moscow,  and  succeeded,  on  the  Czar's 
death,  to  the  throne  of  all  the  Russias.*  And  if  this 
is  credible  in  the  history  of  Ptussia  in  the  sixteenth 
century,  why  is  not  the  Book  of  Esther  credible  in  the 
history  of  Persia  five  hundred  years  before  Christ? 

Now  there  lived,  at  this  time,  in  the  royal  city  of  Susa, 
that  is,  Shushan,  a  Jew  of  the  tribe  of  Benjamin,  of  the 
captivity  in  Babylon,  whose  name  was  Mordecai,  and  he 
had  an  uncle's  daughter,  whose  father  and  mother  were 
dead,  whom  he  had  taken  for  his  own  daughter,  and 
brought  up  with  great  care  and  kindness.  She  was 
very  beautiful — was  fair  of  form  and  good  of  counte- 


*  Catherine  was  crowned  in  the  Cathedral  at  Moscow  in  1724,  by  the  Arch 
bishop  of  Novogorod,  with  the  most  imposing  ceremonies  and  pomp. 
"Teter  himself  clothed  her  in  the  imperial  mantle,  and  placed  the  crown  on 
her  head,  and  when  she  would  have  fallen  on  her  knees  he  raised  her.  Thus 
she  who  was  born  in  obscurity,  and  of  unknown  parents,  was  now  decorated 
with  the  ornaments  of  imperial  power  as  empress,  and  received  such  honors 
as  were  never  before  accorded  to  a  wife  by  the  sovereigns  of  Russia.  Her 
Majesty  was  so  much  affected  that  she  sank  at  the  feet  of  the  Emperor,  which 
she  would  have  embraced,  but  he  raised  her  and  reassured  her  confidence." 
Fowler's  Lives  of  the  Sovereigns  of  Russia,  1  vol.,  p.  353. 


THE  QUEEN'S  NAME.  121 

nance,  as  it  is  literally  in  the  text.  Her  parents  called 
her  Hadassahj  that  is,  a  myrtle  ;  but,  when  she  was 
introduced  at  court,  the  Persians,  according  to  our 
Greek  authors,  called  her  Esther,  that  is,  a  star.  The 
second  Targum  says,  this  name  was  given  to  her  from 
the  name  of  the  star  Yenus,  which,  in  Greek,  is  Aster. 
The  fair  Simoisius  of  Homer,  whom  "  great  Ajax  sent," 
so  tragically,  "  to  the  shades  of  hell,"  received  his 
name  from  the  river  Simois,  on  whose  banks  he  was 
born.  Numerous  instances  occur  in  the  Bible,  and  it 
was  generally  if  not  universally  the  case,  among  eastern 
people,  to  give  names  to  their  children  expressive  of 
some  remarkable  accidents  connected  with  their  birth. 
It  is  most  likely,  therefore,  as  the  myrtle,  in  Persia,  is 
one  of  the  most  delicate  and  beautiful  of  flowers,  that 
Hadassah's  parents  considered  her  exceedingly  beauti 
ful  at  birth,  auid  gave  her  this  name  because  they 
thought  her  as  beautiful  as  the  myrtle  in  the  land  of 
their  captivity.  See  Iliad  iv:  549. 

Now  it  came  to  pass,  in  the  collecting  of  maidens, 
according  to  the  king's  decree,  that  Hadassah  was 
brought  to  the  king's  house,  to  the  custody  of  Hege, 
chief  officer  of  the  king's  harem,  and  she  pleased  him, 
and  he  showed  her  special  favors  during  the  time  of  her 
purification.  I  think  the  Vulgate  and  Josephus  must 
be  in  error  in  calling  Esther  Mordecai's  niece ;  for  she 
was  the  daughter  of  Abihail,  the  uncle  of  Mordecai, 
and  was,  therefore,  as  we  should  say,  his  cousin.  This 
is  the  Hebrew.  It  is  true,  however,  that  terms  of  rela 
tionship  are  used  with  considerable  vagueness  in  orien 
tal  languages,  and  even  in  some  modern  ones.  This 
Hege  was,  no  doubt,  as  the  Septuagint,  Vulgate,  Tar- 
6 


122  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN   QUEEN. 

gum  and  the  Syriac  all  say,  the  king's  chief  eunuch. 
It  is  well  known  that  such  persons  only  have  the  cus 
tody  of  the  harems  of  the  East.  Hege  and  Hcyai  are, 
doubtless,  only  variations  of  the  same  name. 

The  maids  of  honor  appointed  to  Esther,  and  the 
style  of  her  entertainment,  as  described  in  the  text,  may 
be  illustrated  from  Knoller's  description  of  a  bridal  pro 
cession  and  traveling  equipage  of  a  bride  in  Turkey. 
He  says  he  saw  one  that  had  "  eleven  coaches  full  of 
young  maidens  attended  by  black  eunuchs,  and  these 
were  followed  by  twenty-eight  virgin  slaves,  attired  in 
cloth  of  gold  and  accompanied  by  twenty-eight  black 
eunuchs  on  horse  back  and  richly  clad.  And  then  fol 
lowed  two  hundred  and  forty  mules,  loaded  with  cloth 
of  gold,  tapestry,  satin,  velvet  and  cushions,  which  are 
the  chairs  of  Turkish  ladies/7 

The  tilings  for  their  purification  were  oil  of  myrrh 
and  sweet  odors,  as  we  learn  from  chap,  ii:  12th  verse. 
The  myrrh  was  used  six  months,  and  then  the  sweet 
odors  six  months  —  making  twelve  months  for  the 
trial,  lest  the  king  should  be  imposed  upon.  There 
may  also  have  been  something  of  State  in  keeping  the 
damsels  so  long  in  preparation,  and  something  educa 
tional.  The  Orientals  are  proverbially  fond  of  oils  and 
odors,  and  the  profusion  indicated  in  the  text  gives  us 
some  idea  of  the  luxury  and  sensual  magnificence  of  the 
Persian  court  at  that  time.  The  king's  taste  was  fas 
tidious.  The  officers  of  his  household  thought  six 
months'  perfuming  with  the  oil  of  myrrh  necessary  to 
make  the  skin  soft  and  smooth,  and  six  months  of  sweet 
odors  to  make  the  body  vigorous,  and  to  give  it,  in  a 
hot  country,  an  agreeable  scent.  Hege  was,  indeed, 


ESTHER'S  PEOPLE  NOT  KNOWN.  123 

charmed  with  the  Hebrew  maid  at  first  sight,  and  be 
fore  the  king  saw  her,  his  chief  officer  had  decided 
she  should  be  the  queen.  He  accordingly  gave  her  the 
best  apartments  of  the  Seraglio,  and  special  attention  to 
prepare  her  for  the  king. 

In  the  tenth  and  eleventh  verses  of  the  second  chap 
ter,  we  find  that  Esther  did  not  make  known  her  peo 
ple.  Mordecai  had  told  her  not  to  show  that  she  was  a 
Jewess.  The  reason  usually  given  for  Mordecai' s  com 
mand  does  not  seem  to  me  to  be  correct.  This  reason 
is,  that  if  she  avowed  herself  a  Jewess,  she  would  have 
been  pronounced  a  slave,  and  thrown  out  of  the  list  of 
competitors  at  once.  History  does  not  sustain  this  view. 
Slaves  were  eligible  to  the  harem,  and  still  are  in  the 
East,  and  from  being  an  odalisque  may  become  a  sul 
tana.  And  besides,  Esther  was  not  a  slave  in  any  other 
sense  than  were  all  the  Hebrews  that  had  been  trans 
ferred  from  the  Babylonian  empire  to  the  Persians  as 
captives.  The  true  reason  no  doubt  was  that  Mordecai 
wished  to  prevent  the  unnecessary  raising  up  of  any 
prejudice  to  her  disadvantage — that  she  might  have  at 
least  an  equal  opportunity  with  the  rest.  The  knowl 
edge  that  she  was  of  the  Hebrew  race  would  have  been 
against  her.  It  was  more  expedient  not  to  put  her 
success  in  peril  by  unnecessary  disclosures  as  to  her 
nation.  After  her  crown  is  more  firmly  settled,  and  she 
has  a  stronger  hold  on  the  heart  of  the  king,  then  it 
may  be  safer  to  bring  to  light  that  she  belongs  to  a 
despised  race.  I  do  not,  however,  see  here  any  com 
promise  of  principle,  nor  any  prevarication.  Anything 
of  this  kind  would  have  been  sinful.  For  an  untruth 
is  never  to  be  uttered,  either  by  gesture  or  by  silence — 

6A 


124  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

no  more  than  by  words ;  but  all  truths  are  not  suitable 
at  all  times.  Nor  is  it  necessary  always  to  tell  all  that 
we  know  to  be  true.  As  no  question  was  made  about 
her  parentage,  or  her  religion,  Mordecai  told  Hadassah 
not  to  volunteer  to  make  any  communications  on  the 
subject.  This  was  a  very  different  thing  from  telling 
her  to  deny  her  race  and  religion.  He  did  not  com 
mand  her  to  tell  a  lie.  Nor  did  she  violate  any  law  or 
sin  against  any  moral  obligation  by  not  telling  these 
things  in  advance.  She  sanctions  no  fraud,  for  her  race 
and  religion  were  no  bar  to  her  entrance  into  the  harem, 
if  known.  And  when  duty  calls,  we  find  her  avowing 
that  she  is  a  Jewess,  and  of  the  faith  of  Abraham.  As 
no  question  was  raised  in  gathering  the  fair  virgins  for 
the  king's  harem,  as  to  their  race  or  religion,  so  there 
was  no  deception  practiced.  Those  who  find  fault  with 
our  record,  and  with  Esther  for  entering  the  king's 
seraglio,  and  becoming  the  queen  of  a  heathen  king, 
overlook  altogether  the  customs  of  those  times  and 
countries.  The  moment  she  entered  the  king's  harem, 
she  was  elected  to  be  his  wife,  just  as  Hagar  was  Abra 
ham's  secondary  wife.  She  was  a  captive — a  subject, 
and  the  will  of  the  king  was  the  supreme  law.  And 
the  moment  she  was  called  to  the  king's  seraglio,  she 
was  engaged  to  him,  and  when  she  was  taken  to  his  bed, 
she  was  married  to  him,  as  the  secondary  wives  of  the 
patriarchs  were  to  them,  and  when  she  was  crowned  she 
was  queen. 

It  is  a  common  saying  that  all  marriages  are  made  in 
heaven,  but  that  some  how  sometimes  there  is  a  mistake 
in  their  coming  down  to  earth.  Yet  the  Bible  does 
certainly  teach  that  a  good  wife  is  from  the  Lord,  and 


A   HAPPY    MARRIAGE.  125 

that  the  way  for  young  people  to  expect  happiness  in 
wedded  life  is  to  marry  in  the  Lord.  In  this  case  it  is 
easily  seen  that  the  G-od  of  Abraham  is  engaged  in 
providing  the  great  king  of  Persia  with  a  wife.  He  is 
not  indeed  to  be  charged  with  the  drunken  revelry  of 
the  king,  nor  with  Yashti's  haughty  disobedience,  nor 
with  the  rash  and  heavy  judgment  of  Memucan ;  yet  it 
was  His  hand  that  gave  incomparable  beauty  to  this 
Jewess,  and  it  was  His  spirit  that  gave  her  favor  in  the 
eyes  of  the  keeper  of  the  women,  and  caused  her  also 
to  obtain  favor  in  the  sight  of  the  king. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


ESTHER    CROWNED    QUEEN. 


"  And  the  king  loved  Esther  above  all  the  women,  and  she 
obtained  grace  and  favor  in  his  sight  more  than  all  the  virgins  ; 
so  that  he  set  the  royal  crown  upon  her  head,  and  made  her 
queen  instead  of  Vashti.  Then  the  king  made  a  great  feast 
unto  all  his  princes  and  his  servants,  even  Esther's  feast." 

Esther  ii:  17,  18. 

As  Vashti  lost  her  husband  and  her  crown  at  a  feast, 
so  it  is  with  a  feast  and  royal  behests  that  Esther  is 
proclaimed  to  have  gained  a  husband  and  a  crown,  the 
very  same  that  Vashti  lost.  The  king  seems  desirous 
to  show  the  courtiers  and  princes  of  all  his  provinces 
that,  as  they  had  seen  his  mortification  and  revenge  on 
one  queen,  so  they  should  see  his  victory  and  magnifi 
cence  in  crowning  another  younger  and  more  beautiful. 
And  he  is  determined  the  whole  empire  shall  rejoice 
on  account  of  her  coronation.  "  And  he  made  a  release 
to  the  provinces,  and  gave  gifts  according  to  the  state 
of  the  king."  Verse  18.  In  our  day,  sometimes  an 
amnesty  is  proclaimed,  prisoners  are  released,  debts 
forgiven,  and  political  offenders  pardoned,  in  honor  of 
the  birth  of  a  prince,  or  the  proclamation  of  peace  after 
a  terrible  war,  or  in  honor  of  the  coronation  of  a  sov- 


128  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

ereign.  In  like  manner  did  Aliasuerus  honor  the  ad 
vancement  of  Esther  to  the  royal  crown  with  a  great 
feast,  and  by  the  remission  of  tributes.  It  is  probable 
that  a  tenth,  or  some  considerable  amount  of  the  cus 
tom  money,  was  allowed  the  queen  for  her  household, 
just  as  in  Great  Britain,  where  it  is  known  as  the  au- 
rum  Regince,  the  queen's  gold;  and  that,  for  the  pur 
pose  of  making  her  popular,  this  was  remitted.  Pilate 
was  wont  to  show  the  clemency  of  the  Roman  Govern 
ment  by  releasing  a  prisoner  unto  the  people  at  the 
Hebrew  festival.  Herodotus  expressly  tells  us  that  the 
Persian  kings  were  accustomed  to  give  their  wives 
cities  and  provinces  for  the  purpose  of  supplying  them 
with  different  articles  of  dress;  one  was  assigned  for 
ornamenting  the  head  and  neck,  another  for  robes, 
girdles,  etc.  The  city  of  Anthilla  was  bestowed  on 
one  of  the  queens  of  Persia,  to  supply  her  with  san 
dals.  The  meaning  of  the  text  is,  that  the  revenues, 
which  had  been  thus  used,  were  remitted  —  not  col 
lected,  in  order  that  the  people  might  be  pleased  with 
the  new  queen;  and  the  king  himself  gave  gifts — sup 
plied  the  pin  money,  out  of  his  own  treasury  accord 
ing  to  the  state  of  the  king. 

According  to  Hebrew  tradition,  Mordecai  had  been 
reduced  in  his  circumstances  by  the  captivity,  but  had 
retained  the  refinement  and  tastes  of  his  former  more 
opulent  condition.  His  house  was  one  of  the  best  of 
his  class  in  those  days,  situate  by  the  river's  side,  and 
concealed  from  view  by  a  grove  of  cypresses.  In  his 
garden  were  figs,  olives,  pomegranates  and  myrtle  in 
such  culture  as  showed  his  taste  and  industry.  Being  a 
man  of  wealth  at  home  in  Judea,  he  was  himself  well 


MORDECAl' S    HOPES    EXCITED.  129 

educated,  and  highly  valued  the  institutions  and  learn 
ing  of  his  father-land.  He  had  devoted,  therefore,  the 
leisure  of  his  retirement  to  study  and  the  training  of  / 
this  Hebrew  maiden,  the  orphan  daughter  of  his  uncle. 
And  as  soon  as  he  hears  of  the  decree  to  collect  all 
the  beautiful  maidens  for  the  royal  seraglio,  his  heart 
bounded  with  joy.  For  he  felt  sure  none  were  more 
charming  than  his  lovely  maid.  Accordingly  he  flew 
with  haste  to  her  apartments  to  open  up  the  subject. 
As  he  came  near,  offering  many  ejaculatory  thanks  and 
prayers  from  his  heart,  he  heard  Hadassah  singing  a 
mournful  song  from  Jeremiah,  and  making  her  harp 
tell  forth  the  sorrows  and  wrongs  of  her  country.  But 
when  he  entered  he  exclaimed,  "  cease  my  child,  Israel 
is  to  be  redeemed.  The  Lord  will  delight  again  in 
Judah."  The  glow  on  her  cousin's  face  showed  his 
joyous  excitement.  And  as  he  relates  what  has  taken 
place  at  the  palace,  and  what  is  now  to  be  done  for  a  \ 
new  queen,  the  sagacity  of  her  sex  penetrates,  at  a 
glance,  all  his  ambitious  hopes,  and  she  sank  down  on 
the  divan  as  a  delicate  flower  faded  from  its  rich  color. 
And  not  until  her  wise  kinsman  has  succeeded  in  per- : 

I 

suading  her  that  it  is  of  the  Lord,  and  that  it  is  he*! 
duty  to  him  and  to  her  countrymen,  and  to  Jehovah, 
jdoes  she  consent  to  enter  the  list  of  candidates  for  the 
Persian  crown.  It  was  in  answer  to  her  kinsman's  ear 
nest  appeal,  somewhat  after  this  style,  that  she  yielded, 
"The  God  of  our  father/'  said  he,  "has  chosen  you 
as  an  instrument  for  the  salvation  of  thy  people.  A 
Hebrew  maiden  on  the  Persian  throne,  and  the  horn 
of  Judah  is  once  more  exalted.  Jehovah  calls  thee, 
Hadassah,  like  Deborah,  and  like  Judith  thou  shalt 
6s 


130  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

stand  forth  in  our  holy  records  as  the  Saviour  of  our 
people  and  our  faith."* 

The  day  she  left  her  uncle's  house  for  the  king's 
harern  was  a  trying  hour.  The  last  beral  was  spent  in 
furnishing  her  with  as  becoming  a  wardrobe  as  possible. 
Her  robes  were  flowing  and  graceful,  as  only  an  eastern 

maiden  can  show;  "her  dark  hair  confined  with  a  lus- 
' 

trous  band  of  diamonds,  her  large  soft  eyes  full  of 
thought,  and  her  whole  figure  expressive  of  majesty  of 
soul  mingled  with  sweet  gentleness."  In  the  same 
harem  were  the  beauties  of  Circassia  and  of  Georgia, 
and  of 

a  The  isles  of  Greece  !  the  isles  of  Greece 
Where  burning  Sappho  loved  and  sung." 

Here  were  the  bright-eyed  houris  from  the  hanging 
gardens  of  the  Indus,  and  from  the  shores  of  the  Cas 
pian,  and  from  Ethiopia,  and  from  "Araby  the  blest;" 
all  radiant  with  the  smiles  of  hope.  But  the  peerless 
beauty  of  the  Hebrew  maiden  takes  the  eunuch  by 
surprise.  He  at  once  shows  her  particular  favor,  and 
this  was  a  prelude  to  her  complete  success.  No  doubt 
there  was  great  emulation  among  the  damsels  of  Persia 
who  thought  themselves,  or  whose  friends  thought  them, 
fair  enough  to  please  the  king.  Every  one  hoped  to 
become  a  queen.  But  "the  king  loved  Esther  above 
all  the  women;  so  that  he  set  the  royal  crown  upon  her 
head,  and  made  her  queen  instead  of  Vashti." 

When  Esther  became  queen,  then  Mordecai  sat  in 
the  king's  gate.  That  is,  he  was  advanced  to  some 
kind  of  service — perhaps  a  kind  of  sub-porter  of  the 


*  This  part  of  our  story  was  beautifully  told  in  the  GLEANER  of  this  city, 
by  Rev.  Dr.  Eckman,  of  last  year. 


A    KING'S   BEST   DEFENSE.  131 

palace ;  and  here,  though  faithful  to  his  Hebrew  faith, 
we  find  him  diligent  in  business  and  remarkable  for  his 
fidelity  to  the  king.  True  piety  never  interferes  with 
|  a  man's  loyalty  to  his  government.  On  the  contrary, 
he  is  the  truest  friend  to  man  who  is  the  most  faithful 
to  his  God.  The  fear  of  Grod  and  proper  regard  for  our 
fellow  men  are  always  consistent.  It  happened,  then, 
just  as  we  should  have  expected,  for  as  soon  as  Morde 
cai  detected  the  conspiracy  of  the  two  chamberlains 
;against  the  king's  life,  he  informs  Esther  of  it,  and  the 
king  is  saved.  The  best  defence  of  a  prince  is  the 
fidelity  of  his  attendants.  Standing  armies,  and  life 
guards,  and  palace  walls,  and  subterranean  passage-ways 
from  barracks  to  barracks,  are  no  sure  reliance.  Nor 
does  the  chapter  of  rebellion,  assassination,  dethrone 
ment  and  exile,  belong  to  any  one  age  or  nation.  Russia 
and  France  up  to  the  present  moment  are  equal  in  such 
details  to  any  of  the  older  Oriental  despotisms.  No 
greatness,  no  care,  no  apparent  popularity,  is  a  perfect 
security  against  treachery  or  violence.  The  absolute 
king  over  millions,  from  India  to  Ethiopia,  was  not 
secure  from  the  traitor's  hand. 

The  story  of  this  conspiracy  against  the  king  is  briefly 
told:  "In  those  days,  while  Mordecai  sat  in  the  king's 
gate,  two  of  the  king's  chamberlains,  Bigthan  and  Te- 
resh,  of  those  which  kept  the  door,  were  wroth,  and 
sought  to  lay  hands  on  the  king  Ahasuerus.  And  the 
thing  was  known  to  Mordecai,  who  told  it  unto  Esther 
the  queen;  and  Esther  certified  the  king  thereof  in 
Mordecai's  name.  And  when  inquisition  was  made  of 
the  matter  it  was  found  out;  therefore  they  were  both 
hanged  on  a  tree :  and  it  was  written  in  the  book  of  the 


132  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

chronicles  before  the  king."  Esth.  ii:  21,  23.  This 
account  is  confirmed  by  Josephus  in  every  essential 
particular.  He  says  the  discovery  was  made  by  a  Jew, 
who  overheard  the  plot,  and  that  he  told  Mordecai,  and 
he  told  Esther,  and  Esther  told  the  king  in  Mordecai's 
name;  so  that  Mordecai' s  name  was  registered  in  the 
Chronicles  as  the  discoverer  of  the  conspiracy. 

The  Hebrew  story  of  this  conspiracy  is  that  the 
haughty  Vashti  relented,  and  greatly  desired  to  regain 
her  crown  and  the  king's  favor,  for  that  she  tenderly 
loved  him.  And  that  this  conspiracy  was  primarily 
intended  to  destroy  Esther,  by  accusing  her  to  the 
king,  and  charging  her  as  its  head,  and  that  when 
she  should  be  disgraced,  then  Haman  who  was  in  power, 
and  who  it  is  said  was  Vashti' s  brother,  was  to  force  the 
king  to  receive  Vashti  again,  or  if  he  refused,  to  kill 
the  king,  and  assume  the  crown  himself.  It  is  easy  to 
suppose  at  least  that  the  anguish  of  the  fallen  queen 
must  have  been  intense,  and  that  she  indulged  the  bit 
terest  enmity  toward  her  happy  successor.  Nor  would 
it  be  surprising  if  she  did  attempt  to  regain  her  crown 
by  intrigue  and  violence.  From  the  subsequent  devel 
opments  of  Haman's  character,  we  are  prepared  to 
think  that  he  was  at  the  bottom  of  this  conspiracy.  The 
attempt  on  the  king's  life  by  his  chamberlain,  is  no  new 
event  in  the  history  of  the  East.  The  cause  is  not 
stated,  but  most  probably  they  were  creatures  of  Ha 
man,  who  thought  to  make  himself  king  by  having 
Ahasuerus  slain.  The  Targuni  says  that  they  thought 
that  Queen  Esther  was  about  to  have  them  removed, 
and  Mordecai  put  in  their  place ;  and  that  on  this  ac 
count,  they  intended  to  poison  her  and  kill  the  king  in 


THE    HAPPY   MAN.  133 

his  bed-chamber.  And  then  with  Haman  on  the  throne 
they  would  have  the  first  honors  and  greatest  emolu 
ments  of  the  empire.  How  true  it  is,  that 

"  Uneasy  lies  the  head  that  wears  a  crown." 

Happy,  immeasurably  happy,  he,  who  though  poor  in 
this  world,  is  rich  toward  God — an  heir  to  a  crown 
incorruptible,  undefiled,  and  that  fadeth  not  away,  re 
served  in  heaven,  where  neither  treason,  nor  violence 
can  reach  it,  nor  shall  any  creature  prevent  the  Lord, 
the  righteous  judge,  from  placing  it  on  his  head  on  the 
day  of  the  revelation  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 

Oriental  princes  in  particular,  carry  their  lives  in 
their  hands.  Not  a  few  of  those  who  have  been  a  ter 
ror  in  the  land  of  the  living  have  gone  down  to  the  pit 
slain.  Bloody  minded  and  deceitful  men  do  not  live 
out  half  their  days.  And  not  unfrequently  the  very 
moment  they  fancy  themselves  secure,  they  are  sur 
prised  with  sudden  destruction.  Treachery  is  a  kind 
of  murder  that  will  out.  Some  bird  of  the  air  carries 
the  voice,  or  some  stone  out  of  the  wall  whispers  of  the 
plot.  Somewhere  something  miscarries,  or  some  link 
in  the  long  crooked  chain  breaks,  or  the  friction  causes 
the  machinery  to  work  so  hard,  that  suspicion  is 
awakened  and  conviction  secured. 

The  traitors  were  hanged,  but  not  by  a  mob.  The 
king  had  inquisition  made  of  the  matter.  Due  inves 
tigation  was  made,  their  guilt  was  fully  proven,  ac 
cording  to  law,  and  the  history  entered  in  the  Chroni 
cles  of  the  king,  with  the  particular  record,  that  the 
name  of  the  king's  servant  who  had  saved  his  life  was 
Mordecai.  The  mode  of  the  execution  of  these  traitors, 


134  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

after  lawful  conviction,  is  not  mentioned,  but  it  is  re 
markable  how  law-abiding  the  king  and  court  were. 
They  knew  nothing  of  the  convenience  of  Judge  Lynch's 
court.  The  words,  they  were  both  hanged  on  a  tree, 
may  mean,  either  that  they  were  hung  to  a  gallows  of 
wood,  or  that  they  were  impaled,  that  is,  placed  on  the 
sharp  point  of  a  stake,  set  upright  in  the  ground.  This 
is  a  most  dreadful  kind  of  punishment.  The  sharp 
stake  is  forced  through  the  length  of  the  body,  by  pull 
ing  the  legs  down  with  great  force.  Sometimes  the 
poor  victim  lives  a  considerable  time,  but,  of  course,  in 
the  greatest  agony. 

There  is  another  incident  connected  with  Mordecai 
that  shows  us  something  of  the  man's  heart,  while,  at 
the  same  time,  it  proves  the  truthfulness  of  our  history. 
Every  day  he  walked  before  the  court  of  the  women's 
house,  to  know  how  Esther  did,  and  what  should  become 
of  her.  This  was  while  she  was  undergoing  her  prepara 
tion  to  come  before  the  king.  And  it  was  natural  for 
him,  as  he  loved  her  as  his  own  child,  to  feel  anxious  for 
her  welfare,  and  as  the  apartments  of  the  women  were 
deemed  so  sacred,  so  inviolable,  that  it  was  a  great 
crime  even  to  inquire  what  was  doing  within  them — so  he 
lingered  as  near  as  it  was  lawful,  to  pick  up  whatever 
intelligence  might  be  available  of  the  condition  and 
prospects  of  his  beloved  Hadassah.  Chardin  says,  ex 
pressly,  "  A  man  may  walk  a  hundred  days,  one  after 
the  other,  by  the  houses  where  the  women  are,  and 
yet  know  no  more  what  is  done  there  than  at  the  far 
thest  end  of  Tartary." 

1.  It  were  well  for  us  to  consider  here  what  a  model 


THE    MODEL    MAID.  135 

girl  we  have  found  under  the  humble  roof  of  Morde- 
cai's  house ,  in  the  land  of  their  captivity.  TJie  Hebrew 
maid  in  the  royal  Harem,  in  seeking  to  please  the 
king,  is  a  model  for  all  who  seek  to  advance  rapidly 
in  the  world.  Kind,  respectful,  obedient  to  her  foster- 
father,  unostentatiously  attentive  to  her  private  devo 
tions,  as  a  follower  of  the  true  religion,  and,  at  the 
same  time,  careful  not  to  neglect  the  preparations  fit  to 
be  made  for  her  coming  before  the  king.  There  was 
no  love  of  extravagance  about  her.  She  follows  the 
wish  of  the  chief  chamberlain,  and  gives  him  as  little 
trouble  as  possible,  and  grows  every  day  in  his  esteem. 
And,  for  one  in  her  situation,  this  was  a  great  point 
gained.  l  Her  modesty  and  good  sense  make  Hege's 
experience  of  great  avail  to  her.  Extravagance  is  not 
only  a  wicked  use  of  God's  bounty,  but  it  is  the  sign 
of  a  little  and  trifling  mind.  "  But  a  proper  regard  for 
dress  and  the  decencies  of  good  society  is  commendable, 
and  according  to  the  Gospel.  Extravagance  is  not 
only  sinful,  but  is  seldom  successful.  ^  Modesty,  virtue, 
auiiableness  of  temper  and  true  piety  are  the  greatest 
charms  in  woman. 

"  It  is  the  artless  who  catch  the  game." 

J  2.  We  see  the  eifects  of  a  good  education.  Esther 
on  the  throne  is  still  obedient  to  Mordecai.  The  pre 
cepts  she  has  learned  in  her  cousin's  humble  home  she 
remembers  at  the  great  court.  As  queen,  with  the 
royal  crown  on  her  head,  she  is  what  Mordecai  has 
made  her.  Hadassah — myrtle — let  her  be  called  for 
ever,  for  in  the  court  of  the  great  king  she  does  not 
forget  the  guide  of  her  youth.  The  purple  circlet  on 


136        THE  HEBREW- PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

her  brow  does  not  cause  her  to  be  ashamed  of  her  poor 
kindred,  nor  to  forget  the  commandments  of  the  friend 
of  her  youth.  She  does  still  his  commandments,  like 
as  when  she  ivas  brought  up  ivith  him. 

We  are  not  to  suppose  that  in  all  this  wonderful  his 
tory  there  is  anything  like  chance,  or  what  people  call 
mere  luck.  The  agents  were  all  free,  but  they  were 
all  hard  workers.  If  Mordecai  is  tender  and  faithful, 
liberal  and  kind,  his  orphan  ward  was  obedient,  teach 
able  and  diligent.  She  reverenced  him  as  a  father, 
and  with  the  crown  on  her  head  as  Sultana  of  all  Per 
sia,  she  "did  his  commandments  like  as  when  she  was 
brought  up  with  him."  Nor  could  the  circumstances 
of  her  youth  be  considered  as«favorable.  She  was  sur 
rounded  by  idolaters — she  was  in  danger  of  being  led 
astray  by  evil  associations,  for  as 


Oft  converse  with  heavenly  habitants 

Hath  cast  a  beam  on  the  outward  shape — 

The  unpolluted  temple  of  mind — 

And  turned  it  by  degrees  to  the  soul's  essence;" 


so  do  evil  associates  destroy  the  soul. 

A  grateful  remembrance  by  one  in  great  authority  of 
those  that  were  his  benefactors  in  the  days  of  his  ob 
scurity,  is  always  pleasing  and  worthy  of  praise.  Ac 
cordingly  we  see  Esther's  nobility  of  mind  in  not  being 
,  too  much  elated  in  her  prosperity.  Like  Joseph,  no 
court  pomp  could  make  her  forget  her  poor  kin  and 
truest  friends.  There  is  always  something  hopeful  in 
dutiful  children.  Reverence  for  the  aged  and  the  good 
argues  an  appreciation  of  excellence  that  we  may  hope 
will  lead  to  a  matured  imitation.  It  was  God's  plan  to 


ACT  WELL  YOUR  PART.  137 

make  Esther's  influence  affect  the  fate  of  nations,  and 
save  his  chosen  people  from  the  sword ;  but  of  all  this 
she  was  ignorant  in  her  early  years.  How,  then,  was 
she  prepared  for  her  mission  ?  By  first  attending  to 
the  duties  of  her  station  as  an  orphan  girl  that  was 
cared  for  by  an  excellent  kinsman.  David,  by  his 
fidelity  to  his  flock  of  sheep  as  Jesse's  shepherd  son, 
leading  them  over  the  hills  of  Judea,  and  finding  out 
the  best  pasture  for  them,  and  watching  over  them  at 
night,  was  preparing  himself  for  the  throne  of  Israel. 
Act  well  your  part  in  the  lot  Grod  has  given  you,  or 
you  will  never  be  prepared  for  a  higher  one. 
\l  Nor  are  you  to  suppose  that  Esther  as  an  orphan  girl 
had  no  sad  moments — no  fears,  no  misgivings  about 
her  success  in  life.  She  was  not  at  any  time  filled  with 
a  prophetic  spirit,  nor  endowed  with  power  to  work 
miracles.  She  was  in  her  youth  just  like  any  other 

J  affectionate,  well-behaved  Hebrew  maiden.  Her  days 
of  trial  she  had  to  meet  just  as  my  fair  young  readers 
will  have  to  meet  theirs.  The  day  she  left  her  quiet 
home  for  the  harem  was  a  day  she  never  forgot.  And 
then  how  critical,  how  painfully  trying,  the  day  when 
she  is  to  be  introduced  to  the  great  king.  But  happily 
does  she  pass  the  ordeal.  God  so  blesses  her  endeavors 
that  she  gains  the  favor  of  all  who  look  upon  her.  She 
seemed  to  be  a  singular  combination  of  all  that  was 

\J  beautiful  with  all  that  was  maidenly  and  becoming,  so 
that  when  she  passed  from  the  hands  of  the  chief  officer 
of  the  harem  to  the  royal  presence,  she  beamed  upon 
the  king  in  all  the  brilliancy  and  softness  of  the  evening 
star,  and  he  at  once  said  "This  maiden  shall  be  my 
queen,  and  Esther  shall  be  her  name." 


138  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

"  The  soul  that  rises  in  us,  our  life's  star, 
Has  had  elsewhere  its  setting, 

And  cometh  from  afar. 

Heaven  lies  about  us  in  our  infancy." 

3.  In  the  discovery  of  the  conspiracy  and  the  enter 
ing  on  the  records  of  the  empire  an  account  of  Morde- 
pai's  distinguished  services  in  saving  the  kingvs  life,  a 
*good  foundation  is  laid  for  Mordecai's  advancement. 
Esther  at  least,  is  able  now  to  prove  that  he  whom  she 
has  appointed  into  the  king's  service  is  a  man  to  be 
trusted.  But  there  is  no  impatience — no  over  hasten 
ing  in  his  case.  There  is  no  complaint  that  his  remu 
neration  is  delayed.  O  that  we  could  always  feel  that 
God's  time  is  the  best  time — that  patient  waiting  on 
the  Lord  is  no  delay.  God's  leisure  is  always  most  op 
portune.  Mordecai's  hour  is  set  on  the  eternal  dial.  It 
is  sure  to  come,  and  the  intervening  dangers  and  appa 
rent  drawbacks  shall  only  make  his  honors  the  greater, 
and  his  experience  of  the  loving  kindness  of  the  God 
of  Jacob  all  the  more  precious.  Young  man  from 
home — in  a  strange  land — often  have  you  been  disap 
pointed — often  thought  the  golden  prize  within  your 
grasp,  but  it  escaped  you — aniid  your  long  deferred 
hopes,  remember  Mordecai.  He  was  for  the  moment 
apparently  overlooked.  But  his  reward  came.  Impa 
tient  young  man — you  think  you  rise  to  fame  too  slow. 
Your  steps  upward  in  your  profession  do  not  satisfy 
you,  and  yet  you  may  be  rising  faster  than  you  think, 
and  much  more  surely  than  you  could  do  in  any  other 
way.  Think  not  of  how  you  shall  become  great,  but 
only  of  how  you  may  do  your  duty  in  your  place,  what 
ever  it  is,  in  the  most  thorough  and  perfect  manner. 


WAIT   YOUR   TIME.  139 

Wellington  in  his  campaigns  did  not  stop  to  write  let 
ters  proclaiming  his  heroism,  nor  of  his  becoming  great; 
but  only  of  giving  the  French  a  sound  drubbing,  and 
his  greatness  came  of  itself.  Impatient,  are  you  of 
doing  your  work  and  to  make  your  mark  in  the  world  ? 
Remember  Havelock — young  soldier — remember  Have- 
lock — "  every  inch/'  as  Lord  Hardinge  said,  "  every 
inch  a  soldier,  and  every  inch  a  Christian."  Toiling  on 
fifty  years,  almost  all  of  them  spent  under  India's 
burning  sun,  panting  for  his  work  to  do,  and  blanched 
and  weary ;  yet  the  work  Providence  had  assigned  him 
came  at  last.  He  did  it  and  died — nobly  did  it,  and 
his  soul  sped  its  way  to  his  God,  and  in  every  English 
home  there  is  sorrow  as  for  a  father  dead. 

4.  God  often  cares  for  Ms  people,  when  and  in  ways 
and  means  that  they  know  not  of.  Several  steps,  im 
portant  steps,  are  here  taken  for  the  deliverance  of  the 
Hebrews  in  Persia  from  a  danger  that  was  near  at  hand 
and  most  imminent,  but,  as  yet,  not  developed.  The 
way  is  prepared  to  raise  them  up  a  friend,  when  they 
shall  most  need  one,  though,  as  yet,  they  know  nothing 
of  the  danger,  and  such  a  friend  as  they  should  most 
need — the  only  one,  speaking  after  the  manner  of  men, 
that  could  really  serve  them  effectively. 

Speaking  with  reverence,  history  shows  that  God's 
plan  is  often  out  of  our  sight,  but  never  out  of  his  mind. 
An  irreversible  decree  has  gone  forth,  from  the  palace 
of  Shushan,  throughout  the  vast  empire,  that  Vashti  is 
no  longer  queen,  and  that  every  man  must  rule  his  own 
house,  and  may  divorce  his  wife  for  disobedience,  with 
out  regard  to  his  tyranny  or  foolishness  in  giving  his 
commandments.  But  whether  this  decree  serves  the 


140  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

king's  passion,  or  Memucan's  deeper  policy,  it  is  God's 
plan  for  bringing  to  the  Persian  throne  a  queen  after 
his  own  heart,  for  the  deliverance  of  the  seed  of  Jacob. 
Haman,  in  his  rage  against  the  children  of  God's 
friend,  Abraham,  has  not  yet  appeared  on  the  stage ; 
but  in  the  tableau  already  exhibited,  the  sequel  will 
show  we  have  the  means  of  his  overthrow,  and  means, 
also,  for  the  complete  defeat  of  his  murderous  plot. 
The  great  king  has  peace  and  plenty,  and  considers 
himself  established  on  his  throne,  and,  for  this  reason, 
he  prepares  a  most  extraordinary  feast.  This  feast 
gratifies  his  vanity  and  whets  the  appetite  of  his  court 
and  army  for  new  conquests — but  especially  would  he 
show  his  greatest  gem,  his  beautiful  queen ;  but  she  is 
disobedient,  and,  in  his  rage,  she  is  divorced,  and  no 
law  of  the  Medes  and  Persians  can  be  repealed.  The 
king,  therefore,  must  have  another  queen,  and  the  plan 
to  obtain  one  is  suggested  by  his  ministry,  who  have 
their  own  schemes  to  advance,  but,  nevertheless,  the 
plan  introduces  Hadassah,  and  the  conspiracy  against 
the  king's  life,  that  took  place  about  the  same  time, 
serves  to  make  a  valuable  record  of  her  cousin's  great 
services  to  the  king.  Here  is  a  wonderfully  numerous 
band  working  together,  and  every  one — the  conspi 
rators  shall  I  call  them  ? — fulfilling  his  part,  exactly  at 
the  right  time.  The  great  king,  Ahasuerus,  and  the 
ravishingly  beautiful  queen  Vashti;  Memucan  and  his 
ghostly  council  of  astrologers — the  traitorous  eunuchs 
and  privy  council — Mordecai  and  his  lovely  cousin  : 
Her  marriage  and  coronation,  followed  by  Mordecai' s 
fidelity  in  saving  the  king  from  death,  and  the  queen 
the  agent  of  communicating  this  to  the  king,  and  of 


GOD^S    COUNSEL    STANDETH.  141 

having  his  name  duly  entered  on  the  court  journals  as 
the  deliverer  of  the  king;  but,  as  yet,  though  contrary 
to  custom,  no  reward  is  bestowed,  but  that,  however,  is 
because  Providence  has  a  greater  one  in  reserve  than 
would  now  be  given. 

What  an  array  have  we  here  of  lust  and  passion,  of 
cross  purposes — a  variety  of  selfish  views  and  schemes 
and  passions;  and  yet  God  is  working  over  and  through, 
and  by  all,  with  a  steady  and  fixed  purpose  to  save  his 
people,  His  Church.  Promotion  cometh  neither  from 
the  east  nor  from  the  west;  but  from  the  Lord.  He 
raiseth  up  one  and  casteth  down  another.  There  are 
indeed  many  devices  in  man's  heart,  but  the  counsel  of 
the  Lord,  it  shall  stand. 

5.  Remember,  my  fair  young  readers,  of  this  history 
of  the  model  Hebrew  maid  and  peerless  queen,  that 
you  may  all  wear  a  crown  more  precious  than  ever 
adorned  a  Persian  throne.  Though  each  of  the  fair 
virgins  gathered  into  the  king's  seraglio,  hoped  to  be 
come  a  queen,  only  one  could  succeed  to  that  honor. 
But  you  may  all  gain  the  heavenly  prize.  0  that  you 
were  all  as  ambitious  of  your  espousals  to  the  king  of 
glory.  What  time  !  what  quantity  of  myrrhs  and  sweet 
odors  were  consumed  in  preparing  Esther  for  the  king  ! 
How  much  more  diligent  and  pains-taking  should  we  be 
to  secure  a  preparation  for  the  presence  of  the  glorious 
Majesty  of  heaven!  But  how  can  this  be  done? 
"  Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  the  LORD,  and  bow 
myself  before  the  high  God  ?  Shall  I  come  before  him 
with  burnt  oiferings,  with  calves  of  a  year  old?  Will 
the  LORD  be  pleased  with  thousands  of  rams,  or  with 


142  THE   HEBREW- PERSIAN   QUEEN. 

ten  thousands  of  rivers  of  oil  ?  Shall  I  give  my  first 
born  for  my  transgression,  the  fruit  of  my  body  for  the 
sin  of  my  soul  ?"  Micah  vi:  6,  8.  How  can  man  be 
just  in  the  sight  of  G  od  ?  If  I  wash  myself  with  snow 
water,  and  make  my  hands  never  so  clean,  yet  shall 
thou  plunge  me  in  the  ditch,  and  my  own  clothes  shall 
abhor  me :  For  He  is  not  a  man,  as  I  am,  that  I  should 
answer  him,  and  we  should  come  together  in  judgment. 
Neither  is  there  any  days — man  betwixt  us,  that  might 
lay  his  hand  upon  us  both.  Job  ix :  30,  83.  After  all 
the  cleansing  oils  of  our  own  tears  and  repentance,  and 
the  sweet  odors  of  our  own  good  works,  we  are  altogether 
unholy  and  vile  in  the  sight  of  Grod.  It  is  only  by  free 
grace  that  we  are  saved.  It  is  from  Jesus  Christ  alone 
we  can  obtain  the  wedding  garment.  He  is  mighty  to 
save. 

And  why,  brethren,  should  we  be  afraid  to  die  ? 
Why  should  we  live  so  much  in  dread  of  the  grave  ? 
It  is  like  Esther's  baths  of  sweet  perfumes,  in  which 
she  lay  for  a  time  purifying  herself  with  spices,  that  she 
might  be  reckoned  fit  to  come  before  her  lord  the  king. 
So  in  the  grave  our  body  is  prepared  to  be  rebuilt  for 
our  heavenly  home.  Earth  and  worms  do  but  refine 
and  purify  our  flesh,  since  our  Lord  himself  past  through 
the  same  way  to  glory,  and  left  an  enduring  perfume 
there  to  animate  the  bodies  of  all  his  saints.  "  He  is 
the  resurrection  and  the  life,  whosoever  believeth  in 
Him  though  he  were  dead,  yet  shall  he  live." 


CHAPTER  IX. 


THE   JEW   AND   THE    AMALEKITE. 


"  And  when  Haman  saw  that  Mordecai  bowed  not,  nor  did 
him  reverence,  then  was  Haman  full  of  wrath." 

Esth.  \\\ :  5. 

"  Happy  the  man  who  sees  a  God  employ'd 
In  all  the  good  and  ill  that  chequer  life ; 
Kesolving  all  events,  with  their  effects 
And  manifold  results,  into  the  will 
And  arbitration  wise  of  the  Supreme." 

CowpeT. 

THERE  is  no  explanation  given  in  the  text  how  it 
came  to  pass  that  the  Hebrew  maid  found  such  favor 
in  the  sight  of  Hege,  nor  how  it  was  that  she  so  greatly 
pleased  the  king.  But  so  it  was,  that  the  king  loved 
her  exceedingly,  and  she  was  married  to  him,  and  she 
becanie^by  the  will  of  the  Grod  of  Abraham,  SULTANA 
of  the  Persian  throne. 

But  a  new  character  is  now  introduced  to  us.  "  After 
these  things  did  Ahasuerus  promote  Haman,  the  son  of 
Hammedatha  the  Agagite."  Esth.  iii:  1. 

Agagitc,  perhaps,  descended  from  Agag,  king  of  the 
Amalekites,  who  was  spared  by  Saul  but  killed  by 
Samuel;  and  it  may  be  that  his  prejudices  against  the 


144  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

Jews  were  hereditary.  Agag  was  probably  a  common 
name  for  the  kings  of  Amalek,  as  Abinielech  was  among 
the  Philistines,  and  Pharaoh  among  the  Egyptians. 
The  meaning  then,  is,  that  Hainan  was  descended  from 
a  kingly  line — atavis  editus  regibus — and  it  is  no  won 
der,  therefore,  that  he  had  bad  blood  in  him,  for  even 
in  royal  races  the  black  drop  of  original  sin  which, 
according  to  Mohammedan  theologians,  and  which  even 
according  to  our  orthodox  catechisms,  is  in  all  men  by 
nature,  has  been  known  to  grow  to  an  enormous  size, 
and  spread  through  the  whole  system.  Hainan's  history 
proves  that  he  was  a  worthy  son  of  such  sires.  His 
inauguration  as  Grand  Vizier  did  not,  therefore,  for- 
bode  any  good  to  the  Jews. 

The  events  of  the  third  chapter  of  Esther  seem  to 
have  occurred  about  five  years  after  the  king's  marriage 
with  the  Hebrew  maid.  The  cause  of  Haman's  promo 
tion  is  not  stated.  His  power,  however,  was  very  great. 
His  seat  was  above  all  the  princes  that  were  with  him. 
And  the  king's  servants,  that  is,  the  officers  of  the 
court,  as  well  as  the  porters  or  keepers  of  the  gate, 
among  whom  was  Mordecai,  all  bowed  and  reverenced 
Hamany  except  Mordecai }  but  Mordecai  bowed  not}  nor 
did  him  reverence.  Was  this  mere  obstinacy  ?  Was  it 
insubordination,  or  was  it  required  of  him  by  his  reli 
gion?  It  seems  probable  from  the  language  used,  and 
from  the  fact  that  the  Persian  kings  sometimes  exacted 
divine  honors  from  their  subjects,  that  something  more 
than  civil  reverence  or  homage  was  demanded  by  Hainan 
and  refused  by  Mordecai.  The  usual  word  for  mere 
civil  respect  is  "kara,"  to  bow.  Mere  politeness  and 
official  position  required  this  from  Mordecai,  and  this 


PERSIAN    KINGS   WORSHIPED.  145 

much  Hebrew  law  enjoined.  But  Mordecai  did  not 
bow — 10  yikara,  nor  did  Tie  do  him  reverence:  velo 
yish  tachaveh,  nor  did  he  prostrate  himself. 

The  monumental  history  of  the  Nile  and  of  the  Eu 
phrates  and  Tigris,  abound  with  proof  that  Eastern 
kings  received  honors  and  homage  as  gods.  How,  then, 
could  Mordecai,  a  Jew,  with  the  laws  of  Moses  before 
him,  (Exod.  xx,  xvii :  14  ;  Deut.  xxv :  19,)  and  in 
the  light  of  the  history  of  his  people,  with  a  good  con 
science,  render  divine  homage  to  a  human  being,  and 
especially  to  a  wicked  man,  and  still  more  to  an  Amal- 
ekite,  one  of  the  race  devoted  to  destruction  ?  You  re 
member  the  Hebrews  had  been  expressly  commanded 
to  blot  out  this  nation  from  under  heaven,  "  as  a  thing 
accursed."  That  such  was  the  ground  of  Mordecai;s 
refusal,  is  clearly  to  be  inferred  from  the  fourth  verse, 
where,  when  his  fellow  servants  were  urgent  upon  him 
to  comply  with  the  king's  command,  and,  like  them, 
do  reverence  to  Haman,  he  told  them  he  ivas  a  Jew. 
It  was  not,  then,  from  a  mere  personal  whim,  prejudice,, 
or  freak  of  feeling,  but  from  an  all-powerful  religious 
conviction  that  he  acted.  We  have  the  same  thing  in 
Daniel,  where  the  offense  for  which  he  was  cast  into 
the  lion's  den  was  his  refusing  to  cease  praying  to  the 
God  of  his  fathers.  In  this  instance,  we  find  a  good 
man  obliged  to  differ  from  the  majority  of  his  compan 
ions  and  fellow  officers.  All  the  rest  of  the  king's  of 
ficers  were  exceedingly  obsequious  to  the  new  favorite ; 
but  Mordecai,  adhering  to  his  principles  with  a  bold 
and  daring  resolution,  did  not  bow  to  him,  nor  do  him 
homage.  Among  commentators  there  is  some  differ 
ence  of  opinion  about  Mordecai's  conduct.  Some 
7 


146  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN   QUEEN. 

praise  and  some  condemn  him.  But,  as  I  understand 
the  history,  Mordecai  did  right,  and  showed  himself  to 
be  a  man  of  true  courage  and  heroic  piety.  The  hom 
age  required  was  something  more  than  the  usual  rever 
ence  or  respect  for  a  prime  minister.  The  usual  form 
of  etiquette  was  well  established  and  widely  known. 
A  royal  decree,  therefore,  could  hardly  have  been 
required  to  make  it  known  to  the  servants  of  the 
palace,  which  was  done  in  this  instance  —  "  for  the 
king  had  so  commanded  concerning  him."  And,  as 
we  have  just  seen,  the  Hebrew  intimates  that  the 
reverence  here  commanded  was  of  an  idolatrous 
kind.  The  divine  adoration  which  the  Persian  mon- 
archs  received  is,  in  fact,  expressed  by  the  very  word 
here  used  for  doing  reverence  :  "  Shachah"  signifies 
prostration,  such  as  is  practiced  in  rendering  the  pro- 
foundest  reverence  that  a  man  can  pay  to  Gk>d,  namely, 
"  by  lying  down  flat  on  the  ground  with  the  hands  and 
feet  extended,  and  with  the  mouth  in  the  dust."  This, 
then,  was  the  kind  of  reverence  that  Mordecai  refused 
to  render  to  Hainan,  the  Agagite  Persian  premier,  and, 
in  refusing  this  homage,  we  find  him  adhering  to  his 
religion.  He  followed  principle,  not  expediency.  His 
conduct  resembles  that  of  Joseph  and  Moses  and  Dan 
iel  and  the  three  Hebrews  in  Babylon.  They  all 
remembered  their  catechism,  which  taught  them,  to 
fear  God,  and  not  dare  to  sin  against  Him,  by  depart 
ing  from  principle  on  the  plea  of  policy  or  expediency. 
According  to  Hebrew  tradition  and  the  Targum,  Ha 
inan  had  set  up  a  statue  of  himself,  which  every  one 
that  passed  by  was  obliged  to  worship.  The  apocry 
phal  additions  to  the  Book  of  Esther,  which,  though 


OBEDIENCE  REQUIRED.  147 

not  inspired  nor  of  canonical  authority,  are,  neverthe 
less,  of  some  value  as  ancient  fragments,  embodying 
the  ideas  of  remote  times,  inform  us  that  Mordecai  said, 
in  his  subsequent  prayers  to  Jehovah  :  "  Thou  knowest 
that  if  I  have  not  adored  Hainan,  it  was  not  through 
pride,  nor  contempt,  nor  secret  desire  of  glory  ]  for  I 
felt  disposed  to  kiss  the  footsteps  of  his  feet  gladly  for 
the  salvation  of  Israel;  but  I  feared  to  give  to  a  man 
that  honor  which  I  know  belongs  only  to  my  God." 
Mordecai' s  principles  and  conduct  were  followed  by  the 
apostles,  when  they  laid  down  and  acted  upon  the  fun 
damental  principle  of  liberty,  that  we  must  obey  God 
rather  than  man.  The  great  and  learned  Olshausen, 
in  his  commentary  on  this  text  in  Acts,  has  well  said, 
that  though  "  many  enthusiasts  and  rebels  have  mis 
applied  this  principle  to  the  defense  of  their  insane  or 
mischievous  undertakings,  *  *  *  yet  the  highest 
freedom  of  a  Christian  maintains  no  conflict  at  all  with 
his  unqualified  obedience  to  the  civil  government,  even 
though  it  be  an  unrighteous  one.  He  moves,  in  fact, 
with  his  old  and  new  man,  as  it  were,  in  a  two-fold 
world.  In  the  one  character,  he  is  placed  in  subjec 
tion  to  earthly  relations,  and,  therefore,  willingly  gives 
to  Caesar  what  is  Caesar's ;  but,  in  the  other,  he  is  a 
member  of  the  spiritual  world,  and,  therefore,  gives  to 
God  what  is  God's."  The  true  doctrine,  without  ques 
tion,  is,  that  a  Christian  must  obey  the  civil  magistrate, 
except  when  obedience  to  him  is  clearly  a  sin  against 
God.  True  piety  is  not  rude.  It  is  not  built  upon  the 
ruins  of  good  manners,  nor  of  refined  civilization ;  but 
it  does  teach  us  to  govern  ourselves  by  principles — 
principles  taught  by  the  Word  of  God  and  approved  by 
TA 


148  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

our  conscience,  enlightened  by  his  Word  and  Spirit. 
The  Gospel,  also,  teaches  us,  both  by  precepts  and  ex 
amples,  to  be  steadfast,  unyielding,  even  unto  death,  in 
the  profession  and  maintenance  of  truth. 

As  we  shall  hear  of  this  old  Hebrew  again,  let  us 
take  a  good  look  at  him,  as  we  pass  by  the  gate  this 
evening.  I  could  wish  you  would  closely  observe  him, 
so  that  you  may  know  him  when  you  meet  him  again. 
He  is  not  only  a  man  of  principle,  but  in  his  vindica 
tion  of  himself,  he  shows  that  he  is  not  criminally  in 
different  to  the  good  opinions  of  others — that  he  is  not 
influenced  by  a  mere  fancy  or  whim,  but  is  governed 
by  a  strong  sense  of  duty.  Will  you  observe  him  sit 
ting  at  the  king's  gate,  thinking  of  the  past,  and  won 
dering  how  the  great  future,  of  which  he  had  some  un 
defined,  almost  unconscious  prophesyings  within,  was 
to  be  developed.  His  piety  and  faith  were  of  a  simple, 
earnest  kind.  Though  he  did  not  see  how,  yet  he  was 
perfectly  sure,  salvation  was  for  the  Jews.  And  then 
his  mind  wanders  to  the  palace,  and  he  wonders  how 
the  new  sultana  wears  her  honors,  and  then  he  sternly 
questions  his  own  heart,  aDid  I  take  sufficient  pains, 
and  use  all  the  means  to  establish  her  youthful  heart 
in  the  principles  of  our  holy  religion  ?  Did  I  do  all 
my  duty  to  her,  and  will  she  be  faithful  to  the  God  of 
Jacob,  amid  the  splendor  of  this  great  heathen  court  ? 
Does  she  ever  think  of  me,  and  remember  that,  under 
God,  she  owes  her  education  and  crown  to  me  ?  My 
post  is  now  an  humble  one,  but  I  am  content  with  it. 
It  is  best ;  but,  oh,  that  salvation  were  come  for  Zion, 
that  Judah's  horn  were  again  exalted."  His  pious 
meditations  would,  doubtless,  have  continued  much  Ion- 


MORDECAI'S   COMPANIONS.  149 

ger,  but  here  conies  the  newly  raised  favorite  of  the 
king,  ruffling  past  in  great  pomp,  "  and,"  as  bishop 
Hall  says,  "  when  the  sun  shines  upon  the  dial,  every 
passenger  will  be  looking  at  it ;  there  needed  no  com 
mand  of  reverence,  where  Ahasuerus  was  pleased  to 
countenance.  All  his  subjects  are  willingly  prostrate 
before  this  great  minion  of  their  sovereign,  only  Mor- 
decai  stands  stiff,  as  if  he  saw  nothing  more  than  a 
man  in  that  Agagite." 

But  yonder  come  his  fellow  servants  of  the  palace; 
what  have  they  to  say  ?  Why  they  say  to  him,  why 
transgresscst  thou  the  Icing's  commandment?  And 
verily,  aged  man,  why?  Is  it  that  all  eyes  may  be 
turned  upon  you?  It  is  true,  indeed,  that  he  is  the 
observed  of  all  observers,  who  does  not  go  with  the 
multitude,  even  though  they  go  to  do  evil.  Any  one 
that  dares  to  think  and  speak  for  himself  is  sure  to  be 
condemned  by  the  many  that  he  differs  from;  for  his 
position  and  principles  are  a  running  commentary  of 
condemnation  upon  them.  It  has  ever  been  so,  and 
perhaps  it  will  always  continue  to  be  so;  for  it  is  not 
for  the  man  that  lives  in  the  cellar  to  say  what  he  sees 
who  dwells  on  the  house-top.  Some  men  are  before 
their  times,  and  some  men  never  catch  up  with  the  age 
in  which  they  live;  and  some  men  have  not  moral 
courage  enough  to  hear  themselves  breathe  honestly 
and  freely.  We  see  this  daily  as  to  the  press  and  the 
pulpit.  Is  not  the  daily  bread  of  the  printer  put  in 
jeopardy  if  his  journal  does  not  meet  the  popular  taste? 
And  have  we  not  seen  large  bodies  of  business  men 
combine  to  starve  newspapers  to  death  by  withholding 
their  patronage,  unless  the  said  papers  would  defend 


150  THE    HEBREW-PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

their  conduct  ?  And  is  it  not  true  that  if  one  pulpit 
has  the  courage  to  utter  an  honest  opinion  that  does 
not  happen  to  coincide  with  the  rest  of  the  pulpits, 
that  then  all  the  pulpits  and  papers  that  have  neither 
capacity  to  understand  nor  the  moral  honesty  to  com 
prehend  the  poor  dissenter,  open  their  batteries  upon 
him  ?  Such  proscription  is  tyranny,  and  it  is  a  species 
of  tyranny  from  which  we  are  not  yet  emancipated. 
The  tyranny  of  fanaticism  and  the  cruelty  of  a  vicious 
public  sentiment  are  evils  prevailing  in  our  day,  which 
every  patriot  must  see  and  deplore. 

And  again  his  fellow-servants  say :  Friend  Mordecai, 
consider  well  what  you  are  going  to  do.  Remember,  it 
is  not  Hainan  merely,  but  his  master,  also,  that  you 
offend.  Is  it  wise,  then,  for  you  to  peril  the  forfeiture 
of  your  place  and  your  life,  upon  a  question  of  mere 
etiquette  or  courtesy?  It  is  extremely  impolitic  and 
dangerous  for  you  not  to  do  homage  to  so  great  a  prince. 
And  besides,  if  you  will  not  bow  with  us,  then  you  will 
have  to  suffer  alone.  "  Yes,  friends,"  says  he,  "  I  have 
considered  all  this;  and  I  am  content  to  meet  the  con 
sequences.  It  is  not  a  mere  question  of  courtesy.  / 
am  a  Jew.  My  religion  is,  with  me,  a  glorious  reality. 
It  forbids  me  to  render  divine  honors  to  any  human 
being,  or  to  any  creature.  I  must  abide  by  my  princi 
ples."  And  now,  seeing  they  cannot  change  his  pur 
pose,  his  disobedience  is  construed  into  a  malicious 
obstinacy ;  and  his  monitors  fancy  that  they  have  been 
treated  with  contempt.  It  is  usual  for  those  who  do 
not  succeed  in  reforming  or  changing  the  opinions  of 
others,  to  become  their  enemies.  Even  in  giving  a  re 
proof,  a  friend  is  gained  or  lost.  If  the  reproof  is  re- 


THE   DANGER   OF   ADVICE.  151 

ceived,  a  friend  is  saved,  but  if  it  is  spurned,  a  terrible 
enemy  is  made.  As  John  the  Baptist  did  not  succeed 
in  reforming  Herod,  his  head  was  the  price  of  his 
fidelity.  So  here,  Mordecai's  monitors  feel  slighted, 
and  begin  to  hate  the  man  wjaose  courage  they  could 
not  make  quail — they,  therefore,  pick  a  quarrel  with 
him,  and  as  a  revenge  for  his  refusing  to  pronounce 
their  shibboleth,  they  turn  informers  against  him,  and 
tell  Hainan  how  proud  and  stubborn  the  old  Jew  in 
the  gate  sat  as  he  passed  by.  And  so,  the  next  time 
he  comes  along,  he  watches  the  Jew,  and  so  do  they, 
to  see  whether  Mordecai's  matters  would  stand — that 
is,  whether  he  had  courage  to  remain  steadfast,  and  if 
he  did,  whether  Hainan  would  not  strike  off  his  head. 
Possibly,  also,  it  was  the  habit  of  the  Persian  kings  to 
excuse  their  Hebrew  subjects  from  such  acts  of  obei 
sance  as  they  could  not  conscientiously  render,  and  they 
wished  to  see  now  who  was  to  prevail,  the  prime  min 
ister  or  the  Jew.  From  the  history  before  us,  and  also 
from  that  of  Daniel,  it  seems  probable  that  it  was  only 
when  some  special  decrees  were  made  for  the  benefit  of 
some  malicious  or  revengeful  courtier,  that  the  Jews 
were  molested  in  their  religion. 

Mordecai's  fellow-servants  were  not  capable  of  un 
derstanding  his  principles.  Cowards  never  apprehend 
the  true  character  of  a  brave  man.  Little  minds  can 
not  see  up  into  the  magnanimity  of  a  great  and  noble 
soul. 

But  it  was  not  long  till  this  proud  Amalekite,  with 
more  pomp  than  usual,  snuffing  up  the  air  as  he  walked, 
comes  along  by  the  gate,  saying:  "I'll  see,  myself,  the 
man  that  refuses  homage  to  the  greatest  prince  of  Per- 


152  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

sia."  Aye,  and  so  you  shall,  proud  son  of  Hamme- 
datlia.  You  shall  see  him,  and  you  will  find  him  as 
inflexible  as  the  marble  statues  and  granite  sphinxes 
that  guard  the  city  gate.  Your  eyes  shall  sparkle  with 
fury  as  you  see  him  sit  quietly,  without  paying  you  the 
slightest  homage.  Nor  will  he  even  open  his  lips  to 
you.  He  utters  no  threats,  nor  does  he  even  show  a 
frown;  but  his  joints  are  not  supple  enough  to  bow. 
You  may  possibly  break  them,  but  you  cannot  make 
them  bow  to  the  dust  before  you.  Death  on  the  rack, 
or  in  any  form  your  rage  may  inflict,  is  more  easy  to 
him  than  the  bending  of  his  old  knees,  that  have  never 
learned  to  bow,  except  to  JEHOVAH  alone. 

1.  But  how  does  it  come  that  we  find  a  man  of  such 
integrity  and  strength  of  character,  and  loftiness  of 
principle,  here  in  Persia,  a  captive  far  from  the  home 
of  his  fathers  ?  It  comes  in  a  very  philosophic  way. 
JVIordecai  is  what  his  education  has  made  him — Mor- 
decai  is  the  concrete  word  for  all  the  influences  that 
have  been  operating  on  him  from  his  birth  to  this  mo 
ment.  And  among  these  we  are,  doubtless,  to  find  the 
teachings  and  example  of  his  parents  in  the  home  of 
his  youth,  amid  the  hills  of  Judea.  Parents — espe 
cially  the  mother,  moulds  the  man.  Mothers  arc  more 
constantly  with  their  children  when  they  are  young. 
They  have  their  attention  when  their  affections  are  first 
developing,  and  their  intellects  are  beginning  to  ex 
pand.  They  have  it  then  in  their  power  to  sow  the 
precious  seed,  which  it  is  almost  impossible  wholly  to 
eradicate  in  after  life.  Th#  whole  world  is  an  illustra 
tion  of  the  influence  of  parental  example,  and  yet  the 


EDUCATION    MISDIRECTED.  153 

tendency  of  our  times  to  substitute  the  teaching  of 
schools  and  the  lessons  of  society  for  the  teaching  and 
lessons  of  the  parents'  lips  and  lives.  Our  public 
sc'uoois,  ai.J  Sunday  schools,  are  great  blessings,  if  pro 
perly  employed ;  but  in  just  so  far  as  they  have  caused 
parental  oversight  to  be  relaxed,  and  family  govern 
ment  and  family  instruction  to  be  diminished,  in  just 
so  far  they  have  done  harm.  The  influence  of  paren 
tal  example  cannot  be  wholly  destroyed;  but  there 
should  be  no  substitute  for  it.  Our  schools  should  be 
parental  helps,  not  substitutes,  and  especially  must  the 
parent  retain  in  his  own  hands  the  religious  instruc 
tion  of  his  children.  God  has  intended  the  parent  to 
be  the  child's  first  instructor,  and  first  priest.  For 
months,  after  birth,  the  child  gazes  with  an  uncertain 
bewildered  look  on  whatever  objects  are  within  its 
horizon.  Its  education  has  begun.  And  these  sur 
rounding  objects,  from  which  it  takes  lessons  as  fast  as 
it  can  see,  should  be  beautiful,  well  formed,  and  pure 
in  all  their  associations  and  powers  to  produce  sug 
gestions  as  remembered  in  after  life.  The  pictures, 
furniture  and  window  views,  landscapes,  and  all  that 
comes  within  the  child's  vision,  should  be  refined  and 
in  good  taste.  But  the  next  stage  of  its  education  is 
imitation — catching  and  repeating  the  tones  of  voice, 
or  the  personal  habits  of  those  that  surround  it,  or  of 
the  names  of  things  it  hears;  and,  in  most  cases,  before 
the  parents  are  aware  of  it,  the  child  has  adopted  their 
principles  of  conduct,  and  imbibed  the  spirit  that 
reigned  in  their  hearts.  Happy  then  if  the  child  has 
detected  no  inconsistency  between  the  teaching  and  the 
example  of  the  parents !  Happy  is  it  if  the  principles 
TB 


154  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

adopted,  and  the  disposition  absorbed  shall,  I  say,  have 
been  such  as  are  according  to  truth  and  righteousness, 
for  they  are  to  be  firm  and  enduring.  They  will  grow 
with  his  growth,  and  when  every  thing  else  learned  in 
after  life  shall  fade  away,  and  be  forgotten,  they  will 
spring  up  in  renewed  power,  and  strengthen  the  soul 
for  its  last  effort  in  leaving  the  body.  It  is  in  our  ear 
liest  years  the  soul  receives  its  coloring  and  shape  for 
eternity. 

2.  In  Mordecai's  adherence  to  his  religious  princi 
ples  we  see  that  there  are  limits  to  the  claims  of  social 
and  official  civility  —  bounds  that  duty  does  not  allow 
us  to  pass  in  our  respect  for  our  superiors.  True  reli 
gion  has  much  to  do  with  our  every  day  life,  and  its 
tendency  is  always  to  elevate  and  refine  our  social  rela 
tions,  and  make  us  more  conscientious  and  faithful  in 
our  duties  to  the  State.  An  enlightened  Scriptural  fear 
of  God  always  implies  a  proper  regard  for  the  rights  and 
welfare  of  our  fellow  men.  It  is  fanaticism,  and  not 
Christianity — it  is  bigotry,  and  not  the  G  ospel,  that  per 
secutes  men  for  their  opinions.  Our  Constitution  and 
laws  guarantee,  not  toleration,  but  absolute,  impartial, 
perfect  religious  freedom.  And  so  does  the  Gospel. 

Mordecai  was  bound  to  adhere  to  his  principles,  or  be 
a  traitor  to  his  God.  Accordingly,  we  find  him  taking 
heed  to  his  conscience,  and  see,  also,  at  the  same  time, 
that  his  conscience  is  an  enlightened  and  educated  one. 
He  has  carefully  studied  the  laws  of  God.  I  do  not, 
however,  understand  it  to  be  a  part  of  Christian  polite 
ness  to  flatter  or  lie,  in  paying  compliments  to  the  great. 
It  cannot  be  a  Christian's  duty  to  violate  his  conscience 


GENERAL   JACKSON.  155 

for  the  sake  of  court  etiquette.  The  Word  of  God  is 
the  standard  of  respectability  and  manners  as  well  as 
of  faith,  and  it  forbids  all  lying  and  deceit,  all  flattery 
and  all  mean  compliances  with  the  wishes  of  others, 
however  exalted.  It  does  not  allow  us  to  do  anything 
that  is  contrary  to  good  breeding  and  the  chivalry  of 
right.  It  does  not  allow  us  to  neglect  our  duties, 
waste  our  time  or  injure  our  health,  merely  to  please  a 
friend  or  a  potentate.  Let  it  be  remembered,  to  the 
honor  of  one  of  the  Presidents  of  the  United  States, 
(General  Jackson,  to  whom  I  preached,  as  pastor  of  the 
Hermitage  Church,  for  several  years,)  that  he  never 
allowed  any  visitors  to  keep  him  from  the  house  of  God 
on  the  Lord's  day.  He  kept  an  open  house,  and  was 
visited  by  many  from  all  parts  of  America,  and  by  not 
a  few  distinguished  foreigners.  The  hospitality  of  his 
mansion  was  dispensed  with  a  grace  and  dignity  pecu 
liar  to  one  of  the  Almighty's  true  noblemen.  It  was 
his  custom,  when  his  house  was  full  of  visitors,  when 
the  hour  for  going  to  divine  service  arrived,  to  say, 
"  Ladies  and  gentlemen,  it  is  my  habit  to  go  to  church. 
If  you  will  accompany  me,  I  shall  be  glad.  Horses 
and  the  carriage  are  at  your  service.  But  if  you  prefer 
not  to  go,  the  library  is  open  to  you,  where  you  will 
please  entertain  yourselves  until  I  return."  It  is  use 
less  to  say  that  his  visitors  generally  went  with  him  to 
worship  God,  and  that,  whether  they  believed  in  his 
religion  or  not,  they  respected  him  the  more  for  his 
consistency  and  manliness  of  character.  Nor  does  it 
require  a  single  illustration  to  show  that  this  was  the 
way  of  true  politeness.  It  was  my  happiness  to  know 
General  Jackson  intimately — to  see  him  often  in  per- 


156  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

plexing  circumstances,  and  to  know  much  of  him  as  he 
was  in  his  chamber  and  in  his"  most  unguarded  and  se 
cluded  moments — and  I  do  not  believe  there  ever  lived 
a  more  pure-minded  man,  or  a  man  of  more  ardent 
patriotism,  or  one  that  possessed  greater  attachment 
to  high  principles.  He  was  the  most  incorrupti 
ble  of  men.  And,  in  his  last  years,  I  have  no  doubt 
he  was  sincerely  pious.  The  divinity  of  Christ,  the 
inspiration  of  the  -Scriptures,  and  the  realities  of  a  fu 
ture  state,  were,  with  him,  always  articles  of  faith  that 
did  not  admit  of  debate.  It  was  displeasing  to  him  for 
a  minister  to  condescend  to  argue  such  points. 


CHAPTER  X. 

HAMAN'S  REVENGEFUL  PLOT. 


"  If  weakness  may  excuse, 
What  murderer,  what  traitor,  parricide, 
Incestuous,  sacriligious,  but  may  plead  it? 
All  wickedness  is  weakness." 

M&ton. 

11  Pish,  fool!  thou  blunder'st  through  the  book  of  guilt, 
Spelling  thy  villany." 

Coleridge. 

WE  are  now  introduced  to  Haman  meditating  revenge, 
not  on  Mordecai  only,  but  on  all  of  his  race.  He 
was  full  of  wrath,  and  Jie  thought  scorn  to  lay  hands 
on  Mordecai  alone.  Customs  and  circumstances  change ; 
the  occasions  of  the  development  of  human  depravity 
are  varied;  but,  in  all  ages,  the  opposition  of  the  hu 
man  heart  to  God  has  always  found  ways  to  show  itself. 
According  to  the  Bible,  and  to  experience,  moral  evil 
belongs  to  us,  in  our  present  degenerate  state,  as  truly 
as  any  one  of  our  animal  appetites,  or  intellectual  pow 
ers.  It  is  comparatively  a  minor  point  as  to  how  it 
conies.  It  is  a  fact,  that  you  can  as  easily  find  a  man 
without  the  appetite  of  hunger,  or  without  memory  or 
understanding,  as  you  can  find  "an  unregenerate  man 


158  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

without  an  unvarying  propensity  to  sin.  The  occa 
sions  for  the  development  of  Pharaoh's  hardness  of 
heart  were  altogether  different  from  those  that  sur 
rounded  Solomon  when  his  heart  departed  from  the 
fear  of  the  Lord.  The  point  of  trial  with  Joseph  was 
altogether  different  from  that  of  Daniel;  but  both  were 
sorely  tried,  and  both  conquered.  And  if,  in  Nebu 
chadnezzar's  court,  it  was  a  great  crime  not  to  worship 
a  golden  image,  it  was  not  a  less  offense,  in  the  Persian 
court,  to  pray  with  open  windows  toward  Jerusalem, 
or,  in  Ahasuerus'  court,  to  refuse  to  render  homage  to 
his  minister  of  State. 

Hainan's  proposition,  which  please  read  in  Esther 
iii:  8,  15,  contained  truth  enough  to  make  it  plausi 
ble,  and  error  enough  to  make  it  cruel,  and  enough 
personally  agreeable  to  the  king  to  make  it  popular 
with  him.  It  was  true  that  the  Jews  were  dispersed 
among  the  people,  in  all  the  provinces  of  the  Persian 
empire,  and  in  this  scattering  abroad  was  fulfilled  the 
divine  threatening  contained  in  their  own  holy  books, 
from  Moses  to  Jeremiah,  that  such  a  calamity  should 
befal  them,  if.  they  did  not  keep  their  covenant  with 
JEHOVAH.  And  it  was  true  that  their  laws  were  di 
verse  from  those  of  all  other  people.  They  were  the 
only  true  tlieists  on  earth.  All  other  nations  were  JPO?^- 
theists  and  idolaters.  Nor  was  any  other  nation  under 
the  same  kind  of  political  rule,  nor  governed  by  the 
LORD  in  the  same  way. 

But  observe  the  cunning  malice  of  his  address  to  the 
king.  He  does  not  say,  there  is  an  old  Jew  that  has 
offended  me,  and,  through  me,  offered  an  affront  to 
your  sacred  majesty;  therefore,  let  me  execute  ven- 


CONDITION    OF    THE   JEWS.  159 

geance  upon  him.  No,  not  a  word  of  this  sort.  He 
feared  to  show  his  real  character  for  rancour  to  the 
king,  or  courtiers.  He  professes  to  have  no  personal 
motives,  but  to  be  moved  altogether  by  a  desire  for  the 
public  good.  There  is  "a  people  scattered/7  says  he, 
as  if  they  were  of  no  consequence  to  the  king's  empire. 
They  have  no  fixed  home.  Scattered  abroad,  and 
dispersed,  say  you,  you  son  of  Amalek?  It  is  true) 
but  is  their  dispersion  their  fault,  or  their  misfortune  ? 
Their  fathers  sinned,  and  for  their  sins  their  Grod  had 
sent  the  Assyrians  and  Chaldeans  to  chastise  them, 
by  laying  waste  their  country  and  cities,  and  carrying 
them  away  captives.  Are  the  children  to  be  res 
ponsible  for  the  sins  of  their  parents  and  ancestors  ? 
A  certain  people — as  if  he  meant  to  say,  nobody  knows 
who  they  arc  —  whence  they  came  —  a  fugitive,  vaga 
bond,  Gipsy  race  —  a  curse  to  the  kingdom.  It  was 
thus,  under  false  and  malicious  representations,  by  false 
pleas,  that  he  obtained  his  murderous  decree.  But  if 
he  scrupled  not  to  kill  them,  it  is  not  strange  that  he 
considered  it  no  sin  to  tell  lies  on  them,  though  slan 
der  is  the  worst  kind  of  murder. 

But  Hainan's  scorn  is  exceedingly  haughty.  His 
anger  is  so  fierce  and  excessive  that  he  says  within 
himself,  "It  is  not  enough  to  take  the  blood  of  Morde- 
cai.  This  were  a  mere  vulgar,  plebeian  revenge  for 
such  a  lord  as  I.  My  fury  shall  fly  higher.  His 
whole  nation  shall  perish  for  this  insult.  The  blood  of 
all  the  Jews  is  not  more  than  enough  to  blot  it  out." 
And  as  all  the  Hebrews  then  in  the  world  were  proba 
bly  within  the  limits  of  the  Persian  empire,  it  seemed 
to  be  within  his  power  to  hold  all  their  heads  in  one 


160  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

hand,  while  with  the  other  he  might,  by  one  stroke, 
cut  all  their  throats.  He  was  of  the  Nero  school,  who 
is  said  to  have  wished  that  all  the  Christians  h,".d  but 
one  neck,  that  by  a  single  blow  he  might  make  an  end 
of  them.  In  his  rage,  it  was  nothing  to  Hainan  that 
the  punishment  is  to  far  outrun  the  offense — that  thou 
sands  of  the  innocent  were  to  be  included  in  this  sweep 
ing  execution — thousands  upon  thousands  that  knew 
neither  him  nor  Mordecai  were  to  be  slaughtered  before 
or  without  knowing  the  cause  at  all.  He  hesitated  not 
to  imbrue  his  hands  in  blood  which  he  could  not  help 
knowing  was  altogether  innocent. 

Neither  Jceep  tliey  the,  king's  laws.  But,  Hainan, 
where  is  the  proof  of  this  ?  When  and  where  were  the 
Jews  seditious  under  their  Persian  rulers?  In  all  these 
provinces,  is  there  a  single  Hebrew  that  has  failed  in 
obedience  to  the  king,  unless  it  be  this  personal  enemy 
of  yours  ?  Out  of  all  the  millions  in  his  empire,  has 
the  king  any  subjects  so  true  as  these  Hebrews?  For 
all  the  rest  obey  through  fear;  they  only  obey  from 
conscience,  or  from  a  religious  principle,  for  their  laws 
teach  them  to  obey  and  pray  for  their  sovereigns,  and 
"  adjudge  to  hell  all  that  are  rebellious. "  There  is  not 
a  syllable  in  proof  that  the  Israelites  in  Persia  were 
unprofitable  subjects  or  troublesome  to  the  government. 
It  is  true,  as  Tacitus  says,  and  as  we  know  from  other 
sources  also,  that  the  Jews,  though  scattered,  yet  as  a 
people,  hold  their  religious  rites  distinct  from  all  the 
world  besides.  It  was  a  part  of  their  religion  and 
polity,  and  the  design  of  God,  that  they  should  keep 
themselves  separate  from  the  heathen.  But  there  is 
not  a  syllable  of  proof  that  the  Jews  were  disobedient 


JEWS    GOOD    SUBJECTS.  161 

to  the  laws  of  the  king  of  Persia,  nor  that  they  were 
unprofitable  subjects.  The  contrary  is  proven  by  Ha- 
man's  proposition  to  pay  ten  thousand  talents  to  the 
king's  treasuries.  It  is  as  if  he  had  said  the  govern 
ment  derives  a  revenue  from  these  people,  but  if  the 
king  will  allow  me  to  destroy  them  all,  I  will  make  up 
that  loss  out  of  my  own  property. 

And  in  the  conduct  of  Mordecai,  remember  what 
service  he  has  done,  and  the  principle  upon  which  he 
is  constrained  to  refuse.  Ahasuerus  had  not  now  been 
on  his  throne  but  for  his  loyalty.  Nor  is  it  really  the 
intention  of  the  Persian  Court  to  require  a  Jew  to 
violate  his  conscience  in  matters  of  religion.  It  is  your 
own  malice  that  excites  to  this  fearful  revenge. 

"  It  is  not  for  the  king's  profit  to  suffer  them."  It 
is,  then,  a  question  of  profit  or  loss,  not  of  right  and 
justice.  Never  was  there  a  scheme  of  villainy  that  was 
not  gilded  over  with  the  plausible  pretense  of  public 
utility.  Nothing  under  heaven  has  made  so  many  fools 
and  so  many  heartless  villains  as  supposed  profit.  The 
greatest  good  to  the  greatest  number  is  indeed  desira 
ble,  but  such  an  object  was  never  yet  reached  by  a  dis 
regard  of  justice  and  right.  Expediency  is  a  fallacy.  ; 
It  is  never  allowed  us  to  try  the  experiment  of  doing 
evil  that  good  may  come.  This  is  the  Devil's  "  elabo 
rate  lie." 

How  did  it  turn  out  in  the  case  before  us  ?  The 
king  is  to  get  ten  thousand  talents  for  this  execution. 
But  instead  of  that  his  only  profit  was  the  blood  and 
mangled  bodies  of  thousands  of  his  faithful  subjects. 
Ah,  cruel  Haman !  Are  these  the  tender  mercies  of 
the  wicked  ?  Are  these  the  profits  of  sin  ?  What 


162       THE  HEBREW- PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

"  if  thou  couldst  have  swuin  in  a  whole  sea  of  Jewish 
blood,  if  thou  couldst  have  raised  mountains  of  their 
carcasses.  What  if  thou  couldst  have  made  all  Persia 
thy  shambles,  who  would  have  given  thee  one  farthing 
for  all  those  piles  of  flesh,  for  all  those  streams  of 
blood  ? " — Hall.  Thus  we  see  that  Hainan's  proposi 
tion  for  the  destruction  of  the  Jews  is  backed  with 
three  arguments:  First.  They  are  so  scattered,  that 
their  entire  destruction  will  not  depopulate  any  part  of 
the  empire — killed  everywhere,  they  will  be  missed 
nowhere.  Secondly.  By  their  destruction,  the  empire 
would  be  consolidated  and  become  more  homogeneous. 
They  were  a  people  not  assimilated.  Thirdly.  The 
king's  treasure  should  be  enriched  with  ten  thousand 
talents.  Ahasuerus  was  to  lock  up  all  the  Jews  in  his 
chest,  and  Hainan's  chemistry  was  to  convert  them  all 
into  silver.  But  has  it  not  always  been  thus  ?  In 
what  age  or  country  has  any  one  sought  to  wound  the 
state,  who  did  not  first  kiss  it,  pretending  that  he  was 
seeking  above  all  the  public  good  ?  He  loves  Cassar  not 
less,  but  Rome  more,  and  himself  most  of  all.  "  The 
dear  sovereign  people,"  how  the  demagogue  loves  them, 
and  how  he  hugs  them  to  death,  all  for  mere  love ;  or 
while  kissing  them,  perchance,  either  betrays  them, 
or  steals  all  the  loaves  and  fishes  !  Americans,  you 
have  only  two  creatures  on  earth  to  fear,  religious 
fanatics  and  political  demagogues.  The  people  are 
right,  and  are  honest  and  may  be  trusted ;  but  fanatical 
priests,  and  clergymen  and  demagogues,  you  must  watch 
with  more  than  Argus'  eyes,  and  with  u  eternal  vigi 
lance." 

As  we  find  Haman  assisted  in  his  plans  for  a  speedy 


THE    PRIESTS   EXCITING.  163 

execution  of  Mordecai  by  his  wife,  so  I  have  no  doubt, 
he  was  prompted  in  his  scheme  for  the  utter  exter 
mination  of  the  Jews  by  the  priests  of  Orismades.  It 
were  not  possible  to  get  up  such  a  work  of  horror  with 
out  the  fury  of  races  and  of  religious  fanaticism.  It 
were  no  doubt  an  easy  thing  for  the  priests  of  Zoroas 
ter's  religion,  to  persuade  such  a  man  as  Hainan,  that 
the  state  was  in  danger  from  the  neglect  of  the  Holy 
Temple  of  the  Sun,  and  to  charge  this  neglect  upon  the 
Hebrews,  who  were  corrupting  the  people.  Well  may 
we  imagine  the  horror  with  which  the  Magii  contem 
plated  the  turning  of  their  temples  into  Hebrew  fanes, 
and  the  removal  of  their  priests  to  make  room  for  the 
sons  of  Levi.  And  if  they  knew  that  the  queen  was  a 
Jewess,  they  might  fear  with  reason  that  the  king  might 
forsake  the  religion  of  their  holy  Zend  Avesta  for  that 
of  Moses  and  David,  and  the  worship  of  the  sun  for  the 
worship  of  Jehovah.  And  when  they  had  fired  Ha 
inan's  mind  with  fanatical  fury,  he  exclaimed,  yes,  let 
them  die.  "  Dogs !  Deeves  !  may  Ahrimanes  clutch 
every  soul  of  them !  The  spawn  of  Judah  shall  never 
put  out  our  sacred  fire  ! "  And  rushing  into  the  wait 
ing  room  of  the  king's  apartment,  he  cried  out,  "Woe  ! 
woe  upon  Susa  !  Woe  upon  Persia  and  Media !  The  head 
priest  tells  me  the  gods  are  angry.  Orismades  hides 
his  head  from  us.  The  sacred  fire  burneth  dim.  The 
good  priests  have  studied  the  planets,  and  they  say  there 
is  fearful  danger  that  Ahrimanes  shall  make  Persia  as 
Tyre  and  Babylon."  Now  the  great  king  Ahasuerus 
was  a  superstitious  man,  and  trembling  with  alarm,  he 
says  :  "  What  is  the  cause  of  this  threatened  evil,  good 
Hainan,  what  shall  we  do  ?"  "  The  Jews  !  the  Jews, 


164  THE   HEBREW- PERSIAN   QUEEN. 

my  lord.  Let  the  king  live  forever ;  but  the  Jews  are 
the  accursed  cause  of  all  this  evil.  Their  presence  is 
a  curse  to  our  temple  and  to  our  people."  "  You  are 
certain,  then,  that  these  Jews  are  the  cause  of  the  anger 
of  our  gods  ?"  And  by  trickery,  the  Magii  and  Ha- 
man  convince  him,  that  it  is  owing  to  the  Jews  that 
the  holy  fire  is  going  out,  and  that  if  it  should  die,  then 
woe,  woe  to  the  kingdom  of  Ahasuerus.  Then  said  the 
king,  let  them  die.  Destroy,  kill,  and  cause  to  perish 
all  Jews,  men  and  women,  and  all  their  little  ones.  See 
the  Gleaner. 

There  are  some  who  cavil  at  the  largeness  of  the 
amount — ten  thousand  talents  of  silver — which  Hainan 
offered  to  pay  into  the  treasury.  We  do  not  know 
whether  the  talents  were  Babylonish  or  Jewish.  Either 
would  have  been  a  large  sum.  Ten  thousand  talents 
Babylonish  would  amount  to  about  ten  millions  six 
hundred  thousand  dollars;  but  if  counted  as  Jewish 
talents  they  would  make  more  than  double  that  amount. 
And  here  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  gold  was  plen 
tiful  in  those  days.  It  was  before  this  that  Solomon's 
revenues  by  one  voyage  from  Ophir  were  four  hundred 
and  fifty  talents  of  gold;  that  is,  sixteen  millions  two 
hundred  thousand  dollars;  and  that  his  annual  income 
was  six  hundred  and  sixty-six  talents  of  silver — nearly 
equal  to  twenty-four  millions  of  dollars. 

Heeren  says  that  we  cannot  avoid  being  struck  by 
the  prodigious  abundance  of  the  precious  metals  in 
early  times  in  Central  Asia.  From  the  days  of  Solo 
mon,  and  probably  at  an  earlier  period,  the  thrones  of 
their  princes,  and  the  furniture  of  their  palaces  and  of 
their  tables,  were  of  massive  gold ;  their  weapons  were 


ANCIENT   MILLIONAIRES.  165 

decorated  and  dresses  and  carpets  embroidered  with 
gold.  And  it  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the  descriptions 
given  by  Xenophon  in  ancient  times,  and  by  Cliardin  in 
recent  times,  of  the  riches  and  splendor  of  the  Persian 
kings,  are  so  much  alike  that  they  might  have  pro 
ceeded  from  the  same  pen.  And,  in  fact,  so  closely 
do  the  regal  usages  of  modern  times  in  the  East  resem 
ble  those  of  ancient  times,  that  I  believe  there  is  not  a 
single  fact  in  the  history  of  the  Book  of  Esther  which 
might  not  occur  at  the  present  day,  and  which  does 
indeed  often  happen  in  part,  or  in  various  combina 
tions. 

Nor  are  we  without  collateral  proof  that  such  sums 
were  by  no  means  uncommon  in  and  near  the  times  of 
Haman.  Crassus  owned  a  landed  estate  valued  at  more 
than  one  million  and  a  half  pounds  sterling,  and  Rido- 
rus,  after  having  lost  a  great  deal  in  the  civil  war,  left 
an  estate  worth  one  million  forty-seven  hundred  pounds. 
And  Lcntulus,  the  augur,  died  worth  three  millions, 
three  hundred  and  thirty-three  thousand,  three  hun 
dred  and  thirty-three  pounds  sterling.  Apicius  was 
possessed  of  above  nine  hundred  and  sixteen  thousand, 
six  hundred  and  seventy-one  pounds.  His  wealth, 
however,  was  by  no  means  satisfactory  or  sufficient  for 
him.  For  after  having  spent  vast  sums  in  his  kitchen, 
he  was  so  miserable  that  he  put  an  end  to  his  own  life 
by  poison.  These  rich  old  Romans  were  not  bankers 
or  mere  merchants  and  traders.  These  amounts  did 
not  merely  pass  through  their  hands  in  the  way  of 
trade.  They  were  worth  so  much  in  hard  money.  Nor 
were  all  the  millionaires  of  ancient  times  Romans. 
Herodotus  says  that  Xerxes,  in  going  to  Greece,  the 


166        THE  HEBREW- PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

father  of  Ahasuerus — or  as  some  say,  Ahasuerus  him 
self,  found  Pytliius,  the  Lydian,  possessed  of  two  thou 
sand  talents  of  silver,  and  four  millions  of  gold  darics, 
that  is,  about  twenty-seven  and  a  half  millions  of  dol 
lars.  Lib.  vii.  And  Plutarch  informs  us,  that  after 
Crassus,  the  Roman  general,  had  given  the  tenth  of  all 
he  had  to  Hercules,  that  he  entertained  ten  thousand 
people  at  tables,  and  gave  to  every  citizen  as  much  corn 
as  would  support  him  three  months ;  and  then  had 
seven  thousand  one  hundred  Roman  talents  remaining, 
that  is,  about  twenty-eight  millions  of  dollars.  Surely 
then,  there  is  nothing  incredible  in  our  history,  because 
it  speaks  of  ten  thousand  talents  of  silver.  The  truth 
is,  we  have  glorified  ourselves,  until  one  might  fairly 
infer  from  our  Fourth-of-July  orations  and  School 
Readers,  that  there  was  nothing  in  the  world,  before  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  but  acorns,  buckskin 
moccasins,  human  skull  beer  bowls — not  only  that  no 
brave  men  lived  before  "  the  king  of  men,"  but  that 
there  was  no  Agamemnon  before  our  Washington,  and 
no  Nestor,  Ajax,  Ulysses  or  Cato,  before  our  heroes. 
But  history  seems  to  me  to  tell  a  very  different  story. 
Our  fathers  and  great  men  need  no  detraction  from  the 
great  many  men  of  any  age  or  country.  They  are  he 
roes  among  all  the  heroic.  Let  us  then  do  justice  to 
other  times  and  to  other  nations.  The  wealth  and  lux 
ury  of  the  old  world,  in  many  particulars,  surpassed  our 
own  times.  The  enormous  debts  contracted  in  the 
days  of  Alexander  and  of  the  Caesars,  prove  that  the 
wealth  of  those  times  was  great — although  this  is  a  way 
to  prove  one's  wealth  by,  that  is  not  at  all  to  my  mind, 
especially  for  a  Church.  Antlwny  owed,  we  are  told, 


SPOILS   TO   THE   VICTORS.  167 

at  the  ides  of  March,  £333,833,13.4.,  which,  however, 
it  is  said  he  paid  before  the  calends  of  April,  every 
penny  of  it.  He  was  a  man  after  my  own  heart.  An 
honest  man  is  truly  a  noble  work  of  God.  I  hear  it 
often  said,  moreover,  that  the  officials  of  Government 
always  make  money.  Well,  what  if  they  do  ?  Why 
should  they  not  live  off  their  employment  as  others  do  ? 
They  serve  Caesar,  why  should  not  Csesar  pay  them  for 
their  service  ?  Why  should  they  serve  the  sovereign 
people  for  nothing,  when  everybody  else  is  paid  ?  Why 
should  they  not  make  money  honestly  as  all  others  do, 
or  ought  to  try  to  do  ?  But  in  fact,  we  do  not  under 
stand  this  business  half  so  well  as  the  old  Romans  and 
Persians  did.  It  was  an  easy  matter  with  them  for  a 
man  sent  off  to  be  a  Governor  or  consul,  or  collector, 
soon  to  amass  a  very  large  fortune. 

And  to  take  the  spoil  of  them  for  a  prey.  The  peo 
ple  and  their  silver  were  given  to  Haman  to  do  with 
them  as  he  pleased,  and,  in  making  out  the  decree  of 
extermination,  Hainan  arms  every  Persian  against  his 
Hebrew  neighbor,  and  whets  his  national  enmity  by 
giving  him.  permission  to  take  the  property  of  every 
Jew  he  can  kill.  It  was  bloody  work,  but  the  play  was 
large. 

And  to  make  Haman' s  authority  perfect,  he  was  in 
vested  with  the  king's  signet  ring,  or  privy  seal.  The 
custom  of  having  the  seal  set  in  a  ring,  though  not 
confined  altogether  to  the  East,  has  and  does  still  pre 
vail  there,  more  than  among  western  nations.  Among 
the  Romans  none  but  knights  were  allowed  to  wear 
rings.  When  Alexander  was  dying,  he  took  his  ring 
from  off  his  finger,  and  gave  it  to  Perdiccas,  by  which 


168  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

it  was  understood  that  he  was  appointed  his  successor. 
So  here,  when  the  king  gave  his  ring  to  Haman,  it 
was  meant  to  be  a  token  of  his  affection  and  confidence. 
It  was  a  mark  of  the  high  honor  in  which  he  was  held. 
He  could  now  use  the  king's  authority  for  any  kind  of 
a  decree  he  might  wish  to  issue.  The  extent  of  the 
commission  was  fearful — to  destroy,  to  kill,  and  to  cause 
to  perish,  all  Jews,  loth  young  and  old,  little  children 
and  women,  in  one  day,  throughout  all  the  provinces. 
No  mercy,  no  quarter.  In  every  place  and  by  all  pos 
sible  means,  the  whole  race  was  to  be  instantly  exter 
minated.  I  know  not  that  a  more  impolitic,  unjust, 
disgraceful  and  cruel  measure  was  ever  adopted  by  any 
Government  on  earth.  The  destruction  of  the  Jani 
zaries,  or  of  the  Mamelukes,  bears  no  comparison  with 
it  in  point  of  atrocity.  This  wholesale  destruction  of 
an  entire  people  is  so  foreign  to  our  customs  and  ideas, 
that  we  are  almost  alarmed  at  it,  and  almost  hesitate  to 
believe  the  history ;  yet  have  we  not  reliable  records  of 
similar  catastrophes  in  modern  times  ?  How  often  have 
the  Jesuits  been  expelled  from  the  countries  where 
they  were  living  and  prosecuting  their  work  of  instruc 
tion  and  proselytism  ?  How  many  edicts  have  been 
issued  against  the  Hebrews  in  Spain  and  other  countries 
of  Europe  ?  What  was  the  fate  of  the  Moors  in  Spain  ? 
What  has  become  of  Poland  ?  Are  there  not  many 
Hamans  now  in  the  Turkish  empire,  who  would,  at  a 
single  stroke,  cut  off  the  heads  of  all  the  Christians  in 
the  empire  ?  What  is  the  meaning  of  the  massacre  of 
the  English  and  French  at  Jedda,  and  of  the  slaughter 
of  Christians  at  Joppa  and  Antioch?  In  1770  the 
Grand  Seignior,  in  the  war  with  Russia,  determined  to 


PECULIAR    CRUELTY.  169 

cut  off  all  the  Greeks,  as  a  punishment  for  their  defec 
tion  from  Turkey,  and  but  for  the  great  exertions  of 
the  Turkish  Admiral,  the  celebrated  Hassan  Pasha,  it 
is  believed  all  the  inhabitants  of  Greece  and  the  Greek 
isles  would  have  been  massacred.  But  if  it  were  not 
that  tyranny  and  despotism  harden  the  heart  as  well  as 
blind  the  mind,  it  would  be  almost  impossible  to  believe 
that  any  king  could  be  either  so  idiotic  or  so  awfully 
wicked  as  to  sanction  this  wholesale  murder  of  so  many 
of  his  innocent  subjects — delivering,  without  full  in 
vestigation,  and  without  any  cause,  a  whole  race  into 
Hainan's  hands,  as  lambs  to  the  lion.  In  examining 
the  credibility  of  this  statement  in  our  chronicles,  we 
must  remember  the  age  and  the  country — the  light  and 
careless  manner  of  absolute  monarchs — their  disregard 
of  life — the  peculiar  influence  of  Hainan  as  a  favorite 
— the  large  sum  offered — that  the  king  was  blind  or 
besotted,  if  riot  drunk  with  wine — that  the  prejudices 
of  races  and  the  fanaticism  of  religious  fury,  were  all 
invoked — and  that  it  was,  also,  on  the  plea,  not  of  pri 
vate  vengeance,  or  for  the  gratification  of  any  personal 
feeling,  but  for  the  Public  Good  that  this  murderous 
decree  was  issued. 

As  the  decree  issued  from  the  palace  of  the  royal 
city  of  Susa,  the  people  were  much  perplexed.  The 
king  and  Hainan  sat  down  to  drink;  l>ut  the  city 
Shushan  was  perplexed.  It  is  no  wonder  the  city  was 
in  astonishment  and  terror  at  such  a  decree.  It  was, 
no  doubt,  seen  at  once  that  a  great  many  lives  would 
be  lost.  The  Jews  would  not  all  die  without  killing 
many  of  their  assailants,  and  when  once  such  a  slaugh 
ter  should  have  been  commenced,  who  could  tell  where 
8 


170  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

it  would  end.  Might  not  some  Persians  be  murdered 
for  their  property,  by  their  own  countrymen,  under  pre 
text  that  they  were  Jews,  or  united  to  them  by  mar 
riage,  or  sympathized  with  them,  or  with  the  belief  that 
such  murder  could  be  done,  and  be  charged  upon  resist 
ing  Jews.  The  temper  of  the  court,  and  of  the  city, 
was  not  the  same.  If  proud  and  malicious  men  are  not 
concerned  at  the  price  of  their  revenge,  or  of  their  wars 
and  pomp,  the  people  are.  The  people  were  sad,  but  the 
court  was  merry.  The  king  and  Haman  sat  down  to 
drink.  Perhaps  Hainan  was  afraid  to  leave  the  king, 
or  to  give  him  a  moment's  quiet  reflection,  lest  his  con 
science  should  smite  him.  He,  therefore,  engages  him 
in  a  sack  of  wine.  They  drink  in  honor  of  the  gods 
of  Persia,  and  confusion  to  the  Jews.  A  dark  cloud, 
however,  covers  the  city.  Shushan,  the  delightful,  is 
sad.  The  people,  in  crowds,  show  marks  of  distress. 
The  merry  laugh  is  not  heard  in  the  bazaars.  No 
doubt  many  of  the  Jews  were  known  to  their  Persian 
neighbors  as  industrious,  peaceable,  law-abiding  people. 
It  was  fearful  to  think  of  them  all,  men,  women  and 
children,  being  butchered  in  cold  blood.  Many  busi 
ness  or  domestic  relations  had,  no  doubt,  also  grown  up 
between  them.  It  was  so,  with  Lot's  family,  in  Sodom, 
and  also  with  the  Jews  who  returned  to  the  Holy  Land. 
Nor  is  any  crime  charged  against  the  Jews.  It  is  not 
pretended  they  had  done  anything  worthy  of  death,  or 
that  they  were,  in  any  way,  justly  obnoxious  to  public 
justice.  There  are  no  such  counts  in  the  indictment. 
They  are  devoted  to  death  simply  because  Haman  has 
demanded  it.  No  wonder  this  bloody  edict  was  revolt 
ing  to  the  right-minded  heathen.  No  wonder  the  city 


TPE   TERRORS    OF   DESPOTISM.  171 

was  troubled  at  the  idea  of  such  summary  and  indis 
criminate  slaughter.  It  was  impossible  but  that  Shu- 
shan  should  have  been  perplexed. 

1.  This  history  is  an  illustration,  of  the  danger  of  a 
one-man  power — of  an  absolute  despotism.  When  the 
great  king  was  exceedingly  enraged  with  Vashti,  he 
called  his  seven  wise  men,  and  took  their  advice — 
when  he  was  troubled  about  the  decree  against  her,  he 
also  called  his  ministers,  and  followed  their  counsel  in 
procuring  another  queen, —  and  when  the  conspiracy 
against  his  life  was  discovered,  he  did  not  proceed  to 
condemn  and  execute  the  conspirators  until  a  full  in 
vestigation  had  been  made,  and  their  guilt  established 
beyond  doubt,  and  then  by,  and  with  the  consent  of 
his  senate,  a  decree  was  made,  that  they  should  be  put 
to  death  according  to  law.  But  here,  so  tremendous 
is  the  influence  of  the  envious  and  enraged  new  court 
favorite  over  the  old  monarch,  and  so  bitter  are  the 
prejudices  of  the  court  against  the  Jews,  that,  at  the 
first  suggestion  of  Haman,  without  time  for  reflection, 
without  counsel  from  his  wise  men,  a  general  decree 
which,  by  the  usage  and  laws  of  the  empire,  cannot  be 
altered  or  repealed,  is  at  once  issued,  consigning  a  whole 
nation  to  destruction,  and  transfering  all  their  property 
to  Haman.  It  may  be,  as  some  commentators*  tell  us, 
that  it  took  the  wily  minister  a  long  time  to  overcome 
the  king's  reluctance — that  he  was  overreached  by  the 
flattery  and  the  religious  zeal  of  the  favorite — and 
that  he  consented,  at  last,  only  under  the  impression 
that  he  owed  everything  to  his  zeal  and  fidelity.  But 
all  this  is  no  excuse.  Ahasuerus  was  as  bad  a  king  as 

8A 


172  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN   QUEEN. 

he  was  a  cruel  husband.  Rage  and  passion,  the  marks 
of  royal  weakness,  are  seen  in  his  cruelty  to  his  queen, 
and  to  his  subjects. 

The  decrees  of  Roman  emperors  against  the  Chris 
tians,  and  the  revocation  of  the  edict  of  Nantes,  and  the 
massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew,  may  belong  to  the  same 
chapter  of  horrors  that  chronicles  this  wholesale  mur 
dering  edict ;  but  I  have  not  found  anywhere  a  decree 
so  steeped  in  infamy  and  blood  as  this.  Never  shall 
we  be  thankful  enough  for  our  civil  liberty,  and  free 
dom  to  worship  God.  Daily  thanksgiving  should  be 
made  to  the  God  of  our  fathers  for  our  Bill  of  Rights, 
Habeas  Corpus,  trial  ~by  jury,  and  a  written  Consti 
tution  and  laws  made  in  conformity  therewith.  And 
if  history  teaches  us  to  fear  the  tyranny  of  a  despot,  it 
also  teaches  us  to  fear 


'That  worst  of  tyrants,  an  usurping  crowd. 
Mad,  furious  power,  whose  unrelenting  mind 
No  God  can  govern,  and  no  justice  bind." 


It  is  almost  enough  to  make  an  enlightened  Republican 
loathe  the  name  citizen,  and  the  very  idea  of  free  in 
stitutions,  to  see  how  the  newspapers,  and  advocates  of 
lynch  law,  have  praised  "  the  resumption  of  sover 
eignty  by  the  people,"  and  their  holding  in  utter  con 
tempt  the  constitutional  courts  of  the  country.  aThe 
moment  citizens  become  soldiers,  to  interfere  when  and 
where,  and  for  what  length  of  time  it  may  please  an 
irresponsible,  self-constituted,  unconstitutional  power 
to  direct  them,  then  we  may  bid  farewell  to  freedom."* 


*1  Vol.  Sheridan's  Works.     His  Speech  in  British  Parliament  on  the 
Westminster  Riots. 


LYNCH   LAW   DREADED.  173 

If  we  are  governed  by  the  multitude,  without  such 
courts  and  laws  as  our  Constitution  requires,  then  we 
have  all  the  evils  of  the  worst  despotism,  without  the 
discipline  or  the  security  of  a  tyrant's  rule.  The  lib 
erty  that  rests  on  the  selfishness,  or  the  inclination  of 
one  man,  or  of  a  hundred  mentis  suspended  despotism, 
and  if  we  must  choose  between  the  rule  of  one  man, 
or  of  thirty,  without  a  written  Constitution  and  laws, 
we  should  greatly  prefer  the  one.  In  either  case,  our 
property  and  personal  liberty  are  at  the  will  of  human 
caprice,  or  passion.  In  neither  case  may  the  sword  be 
actually  drinking  the  blood  out  of  our  necks,  but  it  is 
hung  close  over  them  by  the  small  brittle  thread  of  hu 
man  will,  which  a  thousand  things  may  suddenly  snap 
asunder.  As,  under  a  despotism  and  an  oligarchy, 
the  tendency  is  to  a  greater  and  greater  usurpation  of 
power — the  centralizing  of  the  whole  government  in 
one  man,  or  in  a  few,  who,  in  the  end,  are  converted 
into  one;  so,  on  the  other  hand,  there  is  a  dangerous 
tendency,  under  free  institutions,  toward  the  usurpa 
tion  of  too  much  power  by  the  people.  Our  history, 
brief  as  it  is,  shows  that  this  is  the  rock  on  which  we 
are  in  the  greatest  danger  of  total  shipwreck.  Of  this 
danger  all  our  wise  and  great  men,  from  Washington  to 
this  hour,  have  earnestly  warned  us.  It  is  confessedly 
plain  to  every  one,  that  with  us  there  is  a  rapid  ten 
dency,  in  the  popular  mind,  to  exalt  the  will  of  the 
people  above  all  laws,  human  and  divine — to  make 
popular  favor  the  supreme  good  —  the  standard  of  right 
and  wrong.  Already  this  disposition  is  so  fully  de 
veloped  that  every  aspirant  for  place  is  found  under  the 
strongest  temptations  to  offer  incense  to  the  people,  as 


174  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

to  a  god.  And,  of  all  heathen  gods  that  man's  fears, 
lusts,  passions,  and  direful  superstitions  have  ever  formed, 
there  is  not  one  so  inexorable,  so  many-headed,  so 
bloody-minded,  so  insatiable,  and  so  cruel  a  monster, 
as  the  sovereign  people,  when  freed  from  the  moral 
obligations  of  the  word  of  God,  and  let  loose  upon  one 
another  without  the  restraints  of  civil  government. 
Witness  the  reign  of  terror  in  France.  It  is  well 
known  what  Pilate  did  when  his  conscience  constrained 
him  to  ask  the  Son  of  God,  What  is  truth?  He  went 
out,  without  waiting  for  an  answer,  to  consult  with  the 
people.  It  is  when  Babel  is  to  be  built;  it  is  when  a 
golden  calf  is  to  be  set  up;  or  a  traitor,  like  Cataline, 
wishes  to  overthrow  the  city,  or  betray  his  country;  or 
when  the  Son  of  God  is  to  be  crucified,  that  the  vox 
populi  is  appealed  to,  and  the  multitude  blasphemously 
respond,  it  is  the  vox  Dei.  while  the  voice  of  history, 
and  of  reason,  and  of  common  sense,  and  of  the  Bible, 
says  that  the  vox  populi  is  not  the  vox  Dei,  but  the  vox 
infernal.  The  whole  world  lieth  in  wickedness,  and 
is  at  enmity  with  God  and  all  righteousness. 

2.  We  see  how  greatly  we  are  blest,  in  having  a  gov 
ernment,  not  of  men,  but  of  just,  mild,  enlightened 
and  equitable  written  and  published  laws,  guarantee 
ing  to  us  liberty  in  the  worship  of  God,  and  in  the 
pursuits  of  life  and  the  enjoyment  of  our  institutions. 
The  king  of  Persia,  in  some  instances,  seems  to  have 
been  surrounded  by  the  restraints  of  precedents,  yet,  in 
other  cases,  he  could  do  what  he  pleased  with  the  lives 
and  property  of  his  subjects.  There  was  no  written 
constitution.  There  were  no  laws  and  courts,  like  ours, 


OBEDIENCE   TO   OUR   RULERS.  175 

for  the  protection  of  the  rights  of  the  people.  And 
even  if,  as  some  do,  we  allow  that  Ahasuerus  is  the 
same  king  that  granted  a  decree  to  Nehemiah,  and 
that  he  did  it  the  same  year  that  he  married  Esther, 
for  the  rebuilding  of  Jerusalem,  instead  of  thinking 
any  the  better  of  his  character,  we  have  only  the  more 
proof  of  his  inconsistency  and  want  of  principle.  The 
fear  of  God  did  not  enter  into  his  decree  in  favor  of  Ne- 
hemiah,  nor  of  Hainan.  His  purpose  was  to  gratify  a 
favorite  in  both  cases,  but  the  one  was  a  man  df  God, 
and  the  other  was  an  accursed  Amalekite. 

A  weak,  vacillating,  spasmodic  Government  is  a  great 
calamity.  Woe  to  the  people  whose  king  is  a  child.  As 
Christians,  we  are  taught  to  thank  God  for  a  wise  and 
stable  Government,  and  to  pray  for  all  that  are  in  au 
thority,  that  the  Church  universal  may  have  peace,  and 
that  all  its  members  may  lead  quiet  and  peaceable  lives, 
in  all  godliness  and  honesty.  One  of  our  most  common 
ly  used  and  ablest  and  best  commentaries,  in  summing 
up  some  practical  remarks  on  the  character  of  Ahasue 
rus,  says:  "  Whatever  mere  professors  may  be,  true 
Christians  are  the  best  subjects  under  every  Govern 
ment  ;  not  only  because  they  are  more  peaceable,  honest 
and  industrious  than  their  neighbors,  and  conscien 
tiously  pay  tribute  and  render  obedience  in  all  things 
lawful,  but  because  their  examples  and  conversation 
edify  many,  and  their  prayers  bring  down  a  blessing  on 
the  land  in  which  they  live  in  peace.  No  acquisitions 
of  wealth,  therefore,  could  compensate  the  loss  of  them, 
even  in  a  political  view,  and  without  bringing  into 
the  account  the  enormous  load  of  national  guilt  which 
persecution  rapidly  accumulates." — Dr.  Thomas  Scott. 


176  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

3.  We  are  never  to  despair  of  the  Ark,  even  when 
it  falls  into  the  hands  of  the  Philistines.  God  will 
never  forsake  his  people.  It  is  no  new  thing  for  the 
godly  to  have  to  suffer  persecution.  The  Jews  were 
misrepresented.  Even  what  Hainan  said  of  them  that 
was  true,  was  so  said  as  to  give  a  false  coloring  to  the 
whole  picture.  There  is  no  proof  that  the  Jews  were 
factious  under  the  Persian  rule.  On  the  contrary, 
from  the  lives  of  Daniel,  Ezra  and  Nehemiah,  we 
should  Infer  just  the  opposite.  They  do  not  seem  to 
have  shown,  in  Egypt,  Babylon  or  Persia,  any  of  the 
turbulence  that  marked  their  subjugation  to  the  Ro 
mans.  Their  circumstances,  in  the  cases  cited,  were 
very  different — so  that  their  factiousness,  in  New  Tes 
tament  times,  is  easily  explained.  Israelites  arc  usual 
ly  remarkable  for  their  submission  to  law  and  civil 
government.  Hainan's  persecutions,  then,  were  ground 
less  cruelties,  practiced  upon  God's  ancient  people. 
The  slaughter  of  "the  Innocents,"  the  St.  Bartholomew 
massacre,  are  startling  proofs  of  what  men  may  be  led  to 
do  by  malice  and  rage,  all  under  the  plea  of  doing  God's 
service,  in  protecting  the  State  and  the  Church. 
Thousands  of  non-conforming  ministers,  the  very  salt 
of  Great  Britain,  suffered  under  the  Charles,  and  God's 
dear  people,  in  all  past  ages,  have,  in  some  form  or 
other,  past  to  glory  through  many  tribulations.  We 
find  them  fined,  imprisoned,  banished,  despoiled  of  their 
goods,  and  put  to  death,  as  enemies  to  the  Church  and 
State,  but  upon  false  charges.  Persecution  always  fol 
lows  any  favoritism  on  the  part  of  a  Government  to  any 
one  religion  in  preference  to  others.  It  should  not  then 
be  thought  a  thing  incredible  that  the  Israelites  were 


PERSECUTION  EXPECTED.          177 

slandered   and   consigned    to   destruction    upon    false 
charges. 

It  is  an  old  aspersion  of  God's  people,  to  charge  them 
with  singularity.  Would  to  God  there  was  more  cause 
for  the  imputation  than  there  is.  Not  of  a  rude  per- 
verseness,  but  of  a  singularity  that  marks  a  high  de 
gree  of  devotion  to  God,  and  zeal  for  his  service.  But 
it  is  not  possible  for  the  Church  of  God  wholly  to  es 
cape  persecution.  The  seed  of  the  bondwoman  loveth 
not  the  seed  of  the  freewoman.  The  carnal  mind  is 
at  enmity  with  God.  Here  we  find  the  adherence  of 
the  Hebrews  to  their  laws  made  the  subject  of  a  charge 
against  them,  for  which  they  were  to  be  put  to  death ; 
and  yet  these  very  laws  were  their  greatest  glory,  and 
the  best  on  earth.  They  were  the  laws  of  the  Lord 
their  God,  and  it  was  their  duty  to  die  for  them,  sooner 
than  disobey  them,  and  to  die  for  such  a  cause  was  a 
glorious  martyrdom.  The  very  thing,  therefore,  that 
constituted  their  glory,  was  made  their  offense.  But  it 
is  better  always  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  God  than  of 
men.  This  was  David's  choice,  and  observation  ap 
proves  of  it.  The  very  reasons  Haman  gave  for  destroy 
ing  the  Hebrews,  are  among  the  very  reasons  why  God 
will  not  let  them  perish  out  of  the  earth.  That  which 
whets  the  sword  of  men,  moves  the  pity  of  the  Al 
mighty.  And  never  was  there  a  more  deeply  laid  plot 
than  this;  and  to  human  view,  there  seemed  to  be  no 
possible  way  to  escape.  It  was  just  so  at  the  Red  Sea, 
and  yet  it  was  there  His  power  was  manifested  to  save; 
and  so  it  will  be  here.  God  sometimes  leaves  his  peo 
ple  to  come  into  the  greatest  peril,  that  his  power  may 
be  the  more  easily  seen  in  their  deliverance.  Pharaoh 


178  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

was  raised  up  to  show  his  power,  and  so  was  Haman. 
"  Grod  taketli  the  wise  in  their  own  craftiness,  and  en 
snares  the  wicked  in  the  works  of  their  own  hands." 
In  the  darkest  hour,  it  is  our  duty  and  our  highest  hap 
piness,  still  to  trust  in  Grod.  Behind  a  frowning  cloud, 
His  face  beams  with  ineffable  love.  And  if  a  day  of 
fiery  trials  come,  when  for  the  testimony  of  Jesus,  we 
must  endure  cruel  torturings,  even  unto  death,  then 
martyr-grace  will  be  given  unto  us.  I  believe  there 
are  thousands  of  men  and  women,  in  our  own  times,  who 
would  make  as  brave  confessors  and  martyrs,  as  any 
that  have  ever  honored  Christ  at  the  stake,  or  on  the 
Roman  arena.  And  why  should  we  fear  to  die  for  Je 
sus,  or  at  his  bidding  ?  Death  is  but  departing  to  be 
forever  with  the  Lord  and  with  his  saints  in  glory. 

"  The  grave  itself  is  but  a  covered  bridge, 
Leading  from  light  to  light  through  a  brief  darkness. 
Death  is  but  the  lifting  of  a  latch ; 
Only  a  step  into  the  open  air, 
Out  of  a  tent  already  luminous 
With  light  that  shines  through  its  transparent  walls." 

Longfellow. 


CHAPTER   XI. 


MORDECAI   IN    SACKCLOTH. 


Conscience,  good  my  lord, 

Is  but  the  pulse  of  reason." 

Coleridge. 


u  A  man  on  earth  may  have  too  much  love  to  weep.  His 
highest  duty  is  thought  and  then  action." 

Peter  Bayne. 

BATTLES  and  conquests,  the  rise  of  conquerors  and 
the  reign  of  kings  and  their  fall — the  treachery  and 
flattery  of  courtiers  and  the  toils  of  statesmen,  chiefly 
make  up  the  history  of  the  world.  Here  and  there, 
but,  "  like  angel's  visits,  few  and  far  between,"  we 
have  an  episode  for  harmonizing  hostile  nations  into  con 
cord,  and  for  the  advancement  of  the  glorious  arts  of 
peace.  Such  was  the  international  jubilation  for  the 
ocean  telegraph,  which  is,  by  no  means,  a  failure,  even 
if  the  lips  of  this  cable  should  never  utter  another  sylla 
ble.  It  cannot  be  pronounced  a  failure,  because  the 
laying  of  the  cable  was  really  and  truly  accomplished. 
It  is  a  fact,  therefore,  added  to  the  chronicled  deeds  of 
the  human  race.  And  again,  communication  by  tele 
graph  across  the  Atlantic  is  now  certain.  Enough  has 


180  THE   HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

been  done  to  prove  that  it  is  practicable.  And,  be 
sides,  the  interchange  of  good  feeling  between  the  Old 
and  the  New  World,  on  that  occasion,  was  worth  all 
the  expense,  and  a  great  deal  more  than  all  the  expense 
of  the  cable  and  the  jubilee.  It  is  seen  to  be  a  part  of 
God's  plan,  in  the  government  of  the  world,  that  a 
Howard  shall  appear,  now  and  then,  to  remind  man 
kind  of  the  sublime  benevolence  of  which  they  are 
capable.  The  internal  history  of  the  world  is,  however, 
a  very  different  one  from  its  external.  The  internal 
lies  deeper.  It  is  a  history  of  hearts — the  hearts  of 
rulers  as  well  as  of  subjects.  For  it  is  not  true  that 
the  great  and  the  mighty  of  the  earth  have  no  hearts. 
It  may  be  that,  sometimes,  they  try  to  hide  their 
hearts,  or  to  smother  up,  or  enfeeble  their  higher  and 
better  natures.  But  kings  and  queens  have  human 
hearts.  In  the  history  before  us,  we  have  both  exter 
nal  and  internal  conflicts  pictured  out.  Our  chronicle 
here  is  according  to  Esther,  iv  chapter. 

If  we  could  convict  Mordecai  of  selfishness,  pride,  or 
wicked  ambition,  in  his  conduct  toward  the  king  or  the 
prime  minister;  or  of  any  unhallowed  purpose  in  his 
presenting  Hadassah,  his  angelic  cousin,  to  the  chief 
of  the  officers  of  the  king's  household,  as  a  candidate 
for  the  crown  royal,  then  we  should  now  begin  to  fear 
for  him,  and  say,  with  Job's  friends,  that  it  was  for  his 
iniquities  this  calamity  had  come  upon  him.  But  we 
have  not  found  anything  against  him.  We  have,  thus 
far,  found  him  a  well  educated,  refined  gentleman,  of 
high  principles,  tried  integrity,  and  unwavering  loyalty 
and  piety.  He  may  have  felt  a  just  satisfaction  with 
himself  in  what  he  had  done  in  bringing  up  Hadassah, 


MORDECAl's    MOTIVES.  181 

and  advancing  her  to  the  king's  favor.  This  would 
not  have  been  sinful.  There  was  nothing  dishonorable 
nor  sinful  in  his  conduct,  nor  in  his  cousin's  relations 
with  the  king.  But,  doubtless,  Mordecai's  motives 
were  higher  than  mere  personal  gratification  or  honor. 
His  character  is  proof  that  he  was  an  attentive  observer 
of  the  unfolding  providences  of  the  God  of  his  fathers. 
Indeed,  throughout  the  history,  we  see  the  use  of 
means  in  subordination  to  an  overruling  purpose.  Es 
ther's  rare  beauty,  exquisite  form,  faultless  features  and 
radiant  eyes  were  all  given  to  her  by  Him  who  opened 
the  heart  of  the  chief  officer  to  show  her  favor.  And 
He  whose  Spirit  moved  Mordccai  to  use  such  means  as 
were  proper  for  the  education  and  success  of  Esther, 
caused  the  pious  Jewess,  when  she  came  before  the 
king,  to  appear  to  him  as  a  vision  of  perfect  beauty  and 
loveliness.  Her  personal  charms  were  a  part  of  the 
means  to  be  used  for  the  deliverance  of  the  scattered 
Hebrews.  There  is  no  let  or  hindrance  in  the  accom 
plishment  of  the  Divine  purposes,  nor  is  there  any  con 
fusion  or  cross-purposes  between  Divine  efficiency  and 
human  effort.  Man  is  free  and  God  is  sovereign,  and 
salvation  is  always  of  grace — -free  grace. 

When  Mordecai perceived  all  that  was  done,  he  rent 
his  clothes,  and  put  on  sackcloth.  The  promulgation  of 
this  decree  must  have  been  sad  news  throughout  the 
empire.  The  king's  posts  flew  with  the  royal  com 
mand  almost  as  swift  as  the  winds,  and  throughout  all 
the  provinces,  withersoever  the  decree  came,  there  ivas 
great  mourning  among  the  Jews,  and  fasting  and 
weeping ,  and  wailing ;  and  many  lay  in  sackcloth 
and  ashes. 


182  THE    HEBREW- PER  SI  AN    QUEEN. 

Great  was  the  wailing  that  filled  the  Hebrew  quar 
ters  of  the  royal  city  and  every  synagogue.  And,  no 
doubt,  Mordecai' s  former  monitors,  his  fellow  servants 
of  the  palace,  added  insult  to  grief.  "  Did  we  not  tell 
you  so  ?  Did  we  not  admonish  you  that  such  would  be 
the  end  of  your  stupid  obstinacy  ?  It  is  strange  you  will 
run  your  head  against  a  stone  wall.  You  have  come 
to  a  pretty  pass.  You  would  have  none  of  our  advice, 
therefore  we  will  now  leave  you  to  your  sackcloth,  and 
may  it  be  very  soft  to  you  !  But  tell  us,  old  stiff  knees, 
what  is  to  be  the  end  of  a  contest  between  a  Jew,  like 
you,  and  Hainan,  the  favorite  of  the  great  king  of  Per 
sia  ?  Which  will  be  the  hardest,  when  your  earthen 
pitcher  knocks  against  his  of  brass  ?"  And  so,  wagging 
their  heads  and  greatly  delighted  with  their  own  wit, 
they  left  Mordecai  to  his  grief  and  to  his  pious  medita 
tions,  the  reading  of  the  Psalms  of  David,  the  Book  of 
Job,  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah  and  the 
writings  of  Moses,  and  to  find  relief  in  prayer. 

And  Mordecai,  in  sackcloth,  went  out  into  the  midst 
of  the  city,  and  came  even  before  the  king's  gate,  for 
none  might  enter  into  the  king's  gate  clothed  with  sack 
cloth.  It  was  and  is  still  the  law  in  the  East,  that  no 
one  in  sackcloth  can  be  admitted  to  the  presence  of 
royalty,  nor  in  any  habiliments  of  mourning,  unless  by 
special  favor.  Perhaps  the  reason  of  this  prohibition 
was  that  the  sight  of  such  things  would  put  the  king  in 
mind  of  sickness  and  death,  and  so  disturb  his  pleasures. 
As  Mordecai  could  not,  therefore,  enter  the  king's  gate 
or  palace,  with  such  marks  of  oppressive  grief,  be  went 
out  into  the  midst  of  the  city.  His  cry  must  have  been 
peculiarly  loud  and  bitter,  because  he  had  been  made 


MORDECAI   IN   PRAYER.  183 

the  occasion  of  this  murderous  decree.  His  enemy 
seemed  about  to  triumph,  not  only  over  him,  but  also  in 
cutting  off  his  whole  race — scorning  to  let  his  vengeance 
fall  on  him  alone.  As  it  was  with  Moses,  so  it  was 
with  him — what  he  had  done  for  the  deliverance  of  his 
people,  was  at  first  turned  to  their  disadvantage.  "I 
fancy,  as  indeed  the  second  Targum  expressly  says,  I 
hear  him  crying  aloud  through  the  streets,  saying :  "  A 
people  is  going  to  be  destroyed,  who  have  done  no  evil. 
What  a  heavy  decree  is  this  which  the  king  and  Ha- 
man  have  passed,  not  against  a  part  of  us,  but  against 
us  all;  to  root  us  out  of  the  earth."  And  the  Jews 
hearing  him  uttering  such  a  complaint,  gathered  about 
him,  and  he  having  caused  the  book  of  the  law  to  be 
brought  to  the  gate  of  the  city,  and  being  covered  with 
sackcloth,  read  Deut.  iv  :  30,  31.  "  When  thou  art  in 
tribulation  and  all  these  things  are  come  upon  thee  in 
the  latter  days,  if  thou  turn  to  the  Lord  thy  God,  and 
shalt  be  obedient  to  his  voice,  for  the  Lord  thy  God  is 
a  merciful  God,  he  will  not  forsake  thee,  nor  destroy 
thee,  nor  forget  the  covenant  of  thy  fathers,  which  he 
swore  unto  them."  And  then  he  exhorted  them  to 
fasting,  humiliation,  prayer  and  repentance,  after  the 
example  of  the  Ninevites.  In  the  apocryphal  Esther, 
we  have  a  copy  of  the  prayer  which  Mordecai  is  said  to 
have  used  on  this  occasion,  and  at  the  time  of  the  gen 
eral  fast.  It  is  in  the  words  following  : 

0  LORD,  LORD,  the  King  Almighty,  for  the  whole 
world  is  in  thy  power,  and  if  thou  hast  appointed  to 
save  Israel,  there  is  no  man  that  can  gainsay  thee ;  for 
thou  hast  made  heaven  and  earth  and  all  the  wondrous 
things  under  the  heaven.  Thou  art  LORD  of  all  things, 
and  there  is  no  man  that  can  resist  thee,  which  art  the 


184  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

LORD.  Thou  knowest  all  things,  and  thou  knowest, 
LORD,  that  it  was  neither  in  contempt  nor  pride,  nor 
for  any  desire  of  glory,  that  I  did  not  bow  down  to 
proud  Hainan.  For  I  could  have  been  content,  with  good 
will,  for  the  salvation  of  Israel  to  kiss  the  soles  of  his 
feet.  But  I  did  this  that  I  might  not  prefer  the  glory 
of1  man  to  the  glory  of  GrOD ;  neither  will  I  worship  any 
but  thee,  0  GOD.  Neither  will  I  do  it  in  pride.  And 
now,  0  LORD  GOD,  and  King,  spare  thy  people,  for 
their  eyes  are  upon  us  to  bring  us  to  nought  j  yea,  they 
desire  to  destroy  the  inheritance  that  hath  been  thine 
from  the  beginning.  Despise  not  the  portion  which 
thou  hast  delivered  out  of  Egypt  for  thine  own  self. 
Hear  iny  prayer  and  be  merciful  unto  thine  inheritance; 
turn  our  sorrow  into  joy,  that  we  may  live,  0  LORD, 
and  praise  thy  name,  and  destroy  not  the  mouths  of 
them  that  praise  thee,  0  LORD.  All  Israel  in  like  man 
ner  cried  most  earnestly  unto  the  LORD,  because  their 
death  was  before  their  eyes. 

But  perhaps  you  are  indignant  at  his  useless  wailing 
in  the  streets,  and  praying  in  the  synagogue,  and  say, 
why  does  he  not  go  at  once  and  tell  the  queen  ?  But 
can  every  porter  rush  into  Buckingham  palace  and 
speak  to  her  Majesty  ?  Is  every  one  that  comes,  admit 
ted  to  the  presence  of  the  Empress  Eugenie  ?  In  Per 
sia  it  was  a  crime  even  to  inquire  what  was  done  in 
the  harem.  And  except  on  some  very  important  busi 
ness,  even  the  guard  never  speak  to  any  one  outside,  or 
convey  any  intelligence,  either  out  or  in.  Mordecai, 
then,  did  not  go  to  the  queen  for  the  very  best  of  rea 
sons.  He  could  not.  You  must  remember  that  the 
inmates  of  an  oriental  harem  have  their  apartments 
altogether  separate,  and  that  they  are  guarded  by  a 
body  of  black  eunuchs,  who  are  as  fierce,  sullen,  and 
silent,  as  so  many  black  dragons.  No  one,  upon  pain 


MORDECAI    IN    THE    STREETS:  185 

of  death,  from  without,  is  allowed  to  speak  to  any  one 
within  the  harem.  Though  the  queen  was  his  cousin, 
Mordccai  could  have  no  communication  with  her,  except 
through  the  guard.  Even  when  he  discovered  the  con 
spiracy,  he  was  obliged  to  use  one  of  the  eunuchs  as  his 
agent  of  communication  with  her.  Any  one  who  has 
ever  seen  the  guards  of  the  seraglio  of  Constantinople, 
is  ready,  I  am  sure,  to  conclude  that  it  were  as  easy  to 
converse  with  so  many  dragons — and  that  one  might  as 
well  undertake  to  tear  out  their  hearts,  as  to  get  a  syl 
lable  from  them  of  the  secrets  that  are  within  the  walls 
and  gates  of  the  harem — regions  so  sacred  and  so  se 
cluded,  that  they  seem  to  belong  to  another  world.  To 
understand  this  history,  therefore,  it  is  necessary  for 
you  to  divest  yourself  of  our  republican  ideas  of  freedom 
of  access  to  high  personages.  And  this  explains  why 
Mordecai  walked,  as  in  a  preceding  chapter,  every  day 
before  the  court  of  the  women's  house.  This  was  the 
only  way  he  had  to  gain  any  intelligence  from  within. 
So  here,  instead  of  going  to  the  queen,  he  goes  into  the 
streets,  and  cries  with  a  loud  and  bitter  cry,  and  came 
even  before  the  king's  gate.  His  object,  no  doubt,  was 
to  arouse  his  people  to  an  apprehension  of  their  danger, 
and  to  attract  the  attention  of  some  one  from  the 
queen's  apartments  of  the  palace,  through  whom  a  com 
munication  might  be  opened  up  with  her.  For  a  time, 
the  queen  knows  nothing  of  the  decree,  nor  of  Morde- 
cai's  lamentations.  But  at  last,  (<  Esther's  maids  and 
her  chamberlains  came  and  told  it  her.  Then  was  the 
queen  exceedingly  grieved ;  and  she  sent  raiment  to 
clothe  Mordecai,  and  to  take  away  his  sackcloth  from 
him :  but  he  received  it  not.  Then  called  Esther  for 


186  THE   HEBREW- PERSIAN   QUEEN. 

Hatach,  one  of  the  king's  chamberlains,  whom  he  had 
appointed  to  attend  upon  her,  and  gave  him  a  com 
mandment  to  Mordecai,  to  know  what  it  was,  and  why 
it  was.  So  Hatach  went  forth  to  Mordecai,  unto  the 
street  of  the  city,  which  was  before  the  king's  gate." 
The  queen's  crown,  though  sparkling  with  jewels,  was 
now  as  heavy  as  lead  on  her  head,  because  of  Mordecai's 
sackcloth  and  ashes.  It  is  true  friendship  always  to 
feel  the  condition  of  those  whom  we  love.  The  queen 
seems  at  first  to  have  supposed  that  Mordecai  had  been 
robbed  of  his  clothing,  and  was  in  want.  She  there 
fore  sent  raiment  to  him,  and  was  exceedingly  grieved 
on  his  account ;  but  he  received  it  not.  Then  she  sent 
again  her  most  confidential  servant,  to  know  what  was 
the  matter.  And  now  Mordecai  tells  him  of  the  mur 
derous  decree  of  Hainan,  and  commands  him  to  show 
it  unto  Esther,  and  to  declare  it  unto  her,  and  to  charge 
her  that  she  should  go  into  the  Jdng,  to  make  supplica 
tion  unto  him,  and  to  maJce  request  before  him  for  her 
people.  And  Hatach  came  and  told  Esther  the  words 
of  Mordecai.  See  verse  7,  8,  9.  In  the  Greek,  it  is 
added,  that  in  sending  this  message  to  the  queen,  Mor 
decai  said  also :  "  Remember  your  low  estate,  and  how  I 
carried  you  in  my  arms,  and  how  I  have  nourished  you ; 
and  that  Hainan  who  is  next  to  the  king,  has  gotten  a 
decree  for  our  destruction.  Pray,  therefore,  to  the 
Lord ;  and  plead  with  the  king,  that  we  may  be  deliv 
ered  from  death."  This  is  all  good  sense,  and  as  far  as 
we  know,  historically  true,  but  there  is  not  a  word  of  it 
in  the  original  text,  nor  in  the  Syriac  or  Vulgate. 

The  queen's  reply  to  Mordecai  through  Hatach,  was 
that,  "  All  the  king's  servants,  and  the  people  of  the 


THE  QUEEN'S  REMONSTRANCE.  187 

king's  provinces,  do  know,  that  whosoever,  whether 
man  or  woman,  shall  come  unto  the  king  into  the  inner 
court,  who  is  not  called,  there  is  one  law  of  his  to  put 
him  to  death,  except  such  to  whom  the  king  shall  hold 
out  the  golden  sceptre,  that  he  may  live  :  but  I  have 
not  been  called  to  come  in  unto  the  king  these  thirty 
days.  And  they  told  to  Mordecai  Esther's  words." 

The  case  seems  exceedingly  embarrassed.  The  diffi 
culties  were  quite  enough  to  discourage  her  woman's 
heart.  She  seems  to  say,  I  fear  some  rival  has  ob 
tained  the  king's  favor;  or  that  his  affection  has  cooled 
toward  me;  and  if  I  were  to  peril  my  life  by  going  into 
his  presence,  I  fear  my  face,  instead  of  recalling  his 
love,  would  only  excite  his  rage.  But,  says  her  foster- 
father,  with  a  hero's  heart,  I  command  you,  Hatach,  to 
say  to  the  queen :  "  Think  not  with  thyself  that  thou 
shalt  escape  in  the  king's  house,  more  than  all  the 
Jews.  For  if  thou  altogether  boldest  thy  peace  at  this 
time,  then  shall  there  enlargement  and  deliverance  arise 
to  the  Jews  from  another  place;  but  thou,  and  thy 
father's  house,  shall  be  destroyed;  and  who  knoweth 
whether  thou  art  come  to  the  kingdom  for  such  a  time 
as  this?"  Terse  13,  14.  The  queen's  answer  to 
Mordecai  was  a  true  account  of  the  case,  but  to  him  it 
was  the  language  of  weakness — of  unbelief.  The 
fear,  or  imagination  of  a  cruel  death,  did  not  make  his 
heart  fail.  But  if  it  is  death  that  you  fear,  he  says, 
what  but  death  awaits  you  ?  The  case  is  thus :  Go 
and  plead,  and  you  may  die,  it  is  true;  but  if  you  go 
not,  you  are  certain  to  die.  Your  blood  is  Jewish. 
No  one  is  exempted  from  this  decree.  It  were  better 
then  to  act  on  the  possibility  of  hope  than  to  sit  still 


188  THE   HEBREW- PERSIAN   QUEEN. 

and  die.  Bat  I  know  there  is  salvation  for  Israel.  The 
God  of  Jacob  will  not  let  tyrants  root  out  and  destroy 
His  people.  The  Holy  One  of  Israel  will  work  mira 
cles,  as  in  days  of  old,  sooner  than  that  His  promises  to 
our  fathers  shall  fail.  And  if  you  are  not  worthy  of 
the  post  to  which  you  are  raised  up,  the  honor  of  our 
deliverance  will  be  given  to  some  one  else.  It  was  to 
save  His  people,  Jehovah  has  placed  you  on  the  throne, 
and  He  will  not  fail  because  of  your  weakness.  Thus. 
in  Mordecai's  remonstrances  with  the  queen,  we  see : 
First,  That,  for  himself,  though  belonging  to  the  king's 
household,  and  related  to  the  queen,  and  for  Her  Ma 
jesty  herself,  there  was  no  escape  from  Hainan's  decree. 
No  Jew,  high  or  low,  was  to  be  allowed  to  live.  The 
case,  therefore;  was  her  own,  as  well  as  his,  and  of  all 
their  people. 

Secondly,  We  see  his  fsifcb  and  courage.  He  was 
not  in  despair;  for,  even  if  the  queen  would  not  do  her 
duty,  still  he  was  confident  the  needful  help  would  be 
obtained.  Though  one  instrument,  or  agency,  might 
fail,  he  did  not  doubt  but  God's  people  would  b-j  saved. 
The  Divine  covenant  could  not  fail.  He  seems  to 
argue  thus :  It  may  be  God's  rule  to  keep  us  in  igno 
rance  of  our  danger  until  it  is  necessary  to  arouse  us 
to  feel  our  dependence  on  Him.  and  to  use  the  means 
which  He  has  appointed  for  our  deliverance.  He  may, 
in  mercy,  keep  us  ignorant  also  of  our  own  strength 
and  resources  till  we  try  ourselves  what  we  can  do. 
For  it  is  only  when  we  have  done  our  utmost  that  we 
are  authorized  to  commit  our  cause  wholly  to  God,  and 
rest  alone  upon  Him  for  deliverance.  It  is  when 


MORDECAl'S    COURAGE   AND    FAITH.  189 

Atrides  sends  his  whole  soul  with  his  lance,  that  Jove 
carries  it  home  to  the  heart  of  his  enemy.  Mordecai's 
faith  was  truly  conquering.  It  was  heroic.  The  clouds 
were  thick  and  heavy.  The  decree  is  long,  and  broad, 
and  deep,  and  it  has  gone  forth  to  the  utmost  verge  of 
the  empire.  And  it  is  as  irrevocable  as  it  is  cruel  and 
bloody.  The  king  is  all-powerful.  But  still  the  He 
brew's  faith  failed  not.  He  trusted  in  the  promises  of 
God  —  he  thought  them  more  powerful  than  the  threat 
ening  decrees  of  a  tyrant.  "  And  this  is  the  victory 
that  overcorneth  the  world,  even  our  faith. " 

Thirdly,  Though  assured  of  deliverance,  from  some 
quarter,  Mordecai  was  jealous  that  the  queen  should 
have  the  honor  of  it.  And  who  knoweth  ivhether  thou 
art  come  to  the  kingdom  for  such  a  time  as  this?  As 
if  he  had  said,  "  Can  you  suppose  Divine  Providence 
has  raised  you  up  from  so  low  a  condition,  in  a  strange 
land,  to  become  the  queen  of  the  Persian  Empire,  merely 
for  your  own  sake?  Was  there  not  some  great  public 
interest  to  be  secured  by  this  ?  It  cannot  be,  0  my 
lovely,  and  now  royal  cousin,  that  the  God  of  our 
fathers  has  so  highly  favored  you  merely  for  your  own 
sake,  or  for  your  personal  ease,  dignity  and  enjoyment. 
No.  He  has  raised  you  to  the  throne  that  you  may 
have  the  honor  of  doing  some  great  service  to  the 
Hebrew  race,  and  to  the  Church  of  the  one  living  and 
true  God,  in  the  midst  of  a  corrupt  and  idolatrous  em 
pire."  To  awaken  her  to  a  sense  of  her  responsibility, 
and  inspire  her  with  faith  in  God,  he  is  careful  to 
urge  her  to  recall  to  mind  how  Providence  had  taken 
care  of  her  helpless  orphanage,  and  had  raised  her  to 
the  throne,  no  doubt,  for  this  very  crisis.  And  that 


190  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

now,  if  she  failed,  it  would  show  a  great  want  of  cour 
age — great  lack  of  love  for  her  people,  and  a  sad  want 
of  faith  in  Grod;  and,  for  such  a  failure  of  duty,  she 
must  expect  the  wrath  of  Grod.  For  it  was  true  then, 
as  it  is  and  has  been  ever  since,  that  if,  by  sinful  shifts, 
we  seek  to  save  our  life,  we  shall  loose  it.  That  life 
is  lost  that  is  saved  by  sin,  which  is  the  highest  dis 
honor. 

It  is  enough.  The  queen  now  sees  her  responsi 
bility.  Her  foster-father  has,  at  last,  touched  the  right 
cord — her  duty,  as  a  pious  Israelite,  to  the  faith  of 
her  fathers,  and  to  her  kindred.  She,  therefore,  com 
manded  Hatach  to  return  this  answer  to  Mordecai : 
"  Go,  gather  together  all  the  Jews  that  are  present  in 
Shushan,  and  fast  ye  for  me,  and  neither  eat  nor  drink 
three  days,  night  or  day :  I  also  and  my  maidens  will 
fast  likewise :  and  so  will  I  go  in  unto  the  king;  which 
is  not  according  to  the  law;  and  if  I  perish,  I  perish. 
So  Mordecai  went  his  way,  and  did  according  to  all 
that  Esther  had  commanded  him." 


CHAPTER  XII. 


THE    QUEEN   INTERCEDING. 

"  God's  ear  is  open  and  there  still  is  room." 

THE  last  chapter  opened  with  wailing  and  sackcloth 
in  the  streets  of  Shushan.  The  Sultana's  crown  of 
jewels  was  heavier  than  lead.  Royal  hearts  were 
pierced  with  many  sorrows.  0,  the  living  world  of 
anxieties  and  apprehensions  in  which  we  now  dwell, 
nor  are  thrones  and  palaces  free  from  them.  But  the 
chapter  closed  with  a  great  solemn  religious  convoca 
tion.  Mordecai  assembles  the  people  for  fasting  and 
prayer.  Every  Israelite  is  now  to  go  to  his  knees,  not 
before  idols,  nor  in  the  temples  of  the  Sun,  but  before 
Jehovah,  the  God  of  his  fathers.  And  the  queen, 
perhaps  the  only  worshipper  of  the  true  God  in  the 
palace,  with  her  maidens,  are  to  join  Mordecai  and  the 
people  in  fasting  and  prayer;  and,  afterward,  she  says, 
"  I  will  go  in  unto  the  king."  Heroic  resolve,  worthy  a 
Hebrew  queen  of  the  race  of  Miram,  Deborah  and 
Judith.  Nor  is  life  ever  so  well  used  as  when  to  lose  it 
is  gain.  Duty  is  more  than  life.  Duty  is  ours,  conse 
quences  are  God's. 


192  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

We  have  found  a  Hebrew  maid,  an  orphan  and  a 
captive,  on  the  banks  of  the  Choaspes — a  lovely  dam 
sel,  a  beautiful  odalisque,  a  graceful,  charming  wife,  a 
most  fascinating  Sultana;  but  now  we  find  her  the 
Heroine.  Never  till  now  has  her  mission  fully  ap 
peared.  The  process  of  her  preparation  for  her  work 
has  been  long  and  varied  and  most  wonderful,  but  her 
work  came  to  her  at  last,  and  nobly  does  she  perform  it. 
It  is  in  the  noble  resolve  that  she  will  offer  her  life  a 
sacrifice,  if  necessary,  to  save  her  countrymen,  that  her 
real  strength  of  character  begins  to  develop  itself. 
Here,  at  once,  she  rises  to  the  dignity  of  a  martyr. 
The  proud,  heroic  blood  of  Mordecai  speaks  out  in  her 
when  she  says  :  /  will  go  in  unto  the  7cingy  and  if  I 
perish  I  perish.  She  scerns  to  say  :  My  mind  is  now 
clearly  made  up.  It  is  my  duty  to  try  to  save  niy  peo 
ple,  and  I  am  resolved  to  do  so,  and  if  I  lose  my  life  in 
the  attempt,  I  shall  yield  it  cheerfully,  because  I  am 
in  the  way  of  duty. 

Though  it  is  strange  that  there  is  no  mention  of  God 
in  their  fasting  and  ceremonies,  nor  of  praying  to  Him, 
yet  it  is  certainly  implied.  I  do  not  know  why  prayer 
is  not  mentioned,  nor  why  the  name  of  God  is  omitted. 
But,  surely,  it  was  not  supposed  by  Esther  or  Morde 
cai  that  there  was  any  charm  in  their  fasting  or  rend 
ing  of  clothes.  They  must  have  thought  that,  in  and 
by  such  acts  of  penitence,  and  such  marks  of  grief, 
they  could  awaken  the  people  to  a  sense  of  their  dan 
ger  and  arouse  them  to  call  upon  the  God  of  their 
fathers,  in  this  time  of  their  extremity.  The  Queen's 
resolve  implied  her  profound  regard  for  God,  submis 
sion  to  His  will,  and  a  great  regard  for  the  lives  of  her 


THE   GOLDEN    SCEPTRE.  193 

people.  She  had  become  satisfied  that  if  she  was  to 
lose  her  life  it  was  in  a  good  cause,  and  that  she  could, 
therefore,  safely  commit  herself  to  her  heavenly  Father. 
"  Now  it  came  to  pass  on  the  third  day,  that  Esther 
put  on  her  royal  apparel,  and  stood  in  the  inner  court 
of  the  king's  house,  over  against  the  king's  house  :  and 
the  king  sat  upon  his  royal  throne  in  the  royal  house, 
over  against  the  gate  of  the  house.  And  it  was  so, 
when  the  king  saw  Esther  the  queen  standing  in  the 
court,  that  she  obtained  favor  in  his  sight :  and  the 
king  held  out  to  Esther  the  golden  sceptre  that  was  in 
his  hand.  So  Esther  drew  near,  and  touched  the  top 
of  the  sceptre.  Then  said  the  king  unto  her,  What 
wilt  thou,  queen  Esther  ?  and  what  is  thy  request  ?  it 
shall  be  even  given  thee  to  the  half  of  the  kingdom. 
And  Esther  answered,  If  it  seem  good  unto  the  king, 
let  the  king  and  Haman  come  this  day  unto  the  ban 
quet  that  I  have  prepared  for  him." 

There  is  a  passage  in  the  Cyropedia  of  Xenophon 
which  proves  that  the  kings  of  Persia  used  a  golden 
sceptre,  such  as  is  alluded  to  in  the  text.  It  is  in  the 
sixth  book.  "  It  is  not/7  said  Cyrus  to  his  son  Cam- 
byses,  "  the  golden  sceptre  that  saves  the  kingdom ; 
faithful  friends  are  the  truest  and  safest  sceptre  of  the 
empire. "  Other  proof  is  not  wanting,  but  not  needed. 
The  condition  of  the  king  and  the  queen,  as  they  now 
come  before  us,  is  very  different,  and  that  of  the  queen 
very  much  changed.  The  last  time  we  saw  her  was  at 
her  coronation.  Now  the  king  and  Haman  are  drinking 
in  the  banqueting  hall  of  the  palace,  but  Esther  is  very 
differently  employed.  If  you  look  into  her  apartments, 
they  are  gorgeously  furnished.  Light  steals  into  them 
~  9 


194  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

through  the  richly  decorated  windows  by  day,  and 
golden  lamps  from  marble  columns  pour  their  light 
upon  golden  divans — pidvinaria — worthy  of  a  goddess 
by  night.  Her  chambers  are  filled,  every  day,  with 
the  most  costly  perfumes.  Fruits  and  flowers  and 
wines,  from  Shiraz  and  the  Happy  Isles,  cover  the 
tables.  But  the  queen  is  not  under  the  spell  of  such 
enchantments.  For  two  days  and  nights  she  has  nei 
ther  tasted  food  nor  drink.  It  is  now  the  third  day 
since  she  and  her  maidens  begun  their  fasting.  Hun 
ger  and  thirst,  and  mental  agony  still  more,  are  making 
deep  inroads  upon  her  physical  strength,  if  not  upon 
her  beauty.  Pale  and  almost  haggard,  her  lustrous 
eyes  begin  to  grow  dim  with  weeping,  and  her  lips, 
though  almost  parched  with  thirst,  are  still  moving  in 
prayer.  Her  knees  ache  from  long  prostration  on  the 
tesselatcd  floor.  But,  as  hour  after  hour  passes,  and 
her  heart  pours  forth  its  sorrow,  she  feels  her  courage 
growing  stronger,  until  she  has  gained  strength  for  the 
terrible  interview.  But,  before  she  rises  from  her 
knees  to  make  her  toilet,  let  us  hear  one  of  her  prayers. 
We  take  it  from  her  apocryphal  life,  where  it  is  said  : 
"  Being  in  fear  of  death,  queen  Esther  resorted  unto 
the  LORD,  and  laid  away  her  glorious  apparel,  and 
put  on  the  garments  of  anguish  and  mourning; 
and  instead  of  precious  ointments,  she  covered  her 
head  with  ashes  and  dung,  and  she  humbled  her 
body  greatly,  and  all  the  places  of  her  joy  she  filled 
with  her  torn  hair.  And  she  prayed  unto  the  Lord 
God  of  Israel,  saying,  0  my  LORD,  thou  only  art 
our  king,  help  me,  a  desolate  woman,  which  have  no 
helper  but  Thee  :  For  my  danger  is  in  mine  hand. 


THE  QUEEN'S  PRAYER.  195 

From  my  youth  up  I  have  heard  in  the  tribe  of  my 
family;  that  thou,  0  LORD,  tookest  Israel  from  among 
all  people,  and  our  fathers  from  all  their  predecessors 
for  a  perpetual  inheritance,  and  thou  hast  performed 
whatsoever  thou  didst  promise  them.  And  now  we 
have  sinned  before  thee ;  therefore  hast  thou  given  us 
into  the  hands  of  our  enemies,  because  we  worshipped 
their  gods.  0  LORD,  thou  art  righteous.  Neverthe 
less  it  satisneth  them  not  that  we  are  in  bitter  captivity, 
but  they  have  stricken  hands  with  their  idols,  that  they 
will  abolish  the  thing  that  thou  with  thy  mouth  hast 
ordained,  and  destroy  thine  inheritance  and  stop  the 
mouth  of  them  that  praise  thee,  and  quench  the  glory 
of  thy  house  and  of  thine  altar.  And  open  the  mouths 
of  the  heathen  to  set  forth  the  praises  of  the  idols,  and 
to  magnify  a  fleshly  king  forever.  0  LORD,  give  not 
thy  sceptre  unto  them  that  be  nothing,  and  let  them 
not  laugh  at  our  fall,  but  turn  their  device  upon  them 
selves,  and  make  him  an  example  that  hath  begun  this 
against  us.  Remember,  0  LORD,  make  thyself  known 
in  time  of  our  affliction,  and  give  me  boldness,  0  King 
of  the  nations  and  Lord  of  all  power.  Give  me  elo 
quent  speech  in  my  mouth  before  the  lion,  turn  his  heart 
to  hate  him  that  fighteth  against  us,  that  there  may  be 
an  end  of  him  and  of  all  that  are  like  minded  to  him. 
But  deliver  us  with  thine  hand  and  help  me  that  am 
desolate,  and  which  have  no  other  helper  but  Thee. 
Thou  knowest  all  things,  0  Lord)  thou  knowest  that  I 
hate  the  glory  of  the  unrighteous,  and  abhor  the  bed 
of  the  uncircumcised,  and  of  all  the  heathen.  Thou 
knowest  my  necessity,  for  I  abhor  the  sign«of  my  high 
estate,  which  is  upon  mine  head  in  the  days  wherein  I 
9A 


196  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

shew  myself,  and  tliat  I  abhor  it,  and  that  I  wear  it 
not  when  I  am  private  by  myself.  And  that  thine 
handmaid  hath  not  eaten  at  Aman's  table,  and  that  I 
have  not  greatly  esteemed  the  king's  feast,  nor  drunk 
the  wine  of  the  drink-offerings.  Neither  had  thine 
handmaid  any  joy  since  the  day  that  I  was  brought 
hither  to  this  present,  but  in  thee,  O  LORD  GOD  of 
Abraham.  0  thou  Mighty  GOD  above  all,  hear  the 
voice  of  the  forlorn,  and  deliver  us  out  of  the  hands  of 
the  mischievous,  and  deliver  me  out  of  my  fear. 

The  queen  and  her  maidens  have  been  fasting  and 
engaged  in  solemn  devotions  in  their  apartments,  and 
Mordecai  and  all  the  Jews,  fasting  and  praying  in  all 
the  synagogues,  while  the  king  and  Haman  have  been 
quite  otherwise  employed,  But  their  revelry  is  over. 
It  is  court  day  and  audience  hours.  And  as  no  sove 
reigns  ever  assumed  more  haughty  airs,  or  claimed 
higher  royal  honors  than  the  Persians,  it  will  be  inter 
esting  to  get  a  view  of  the  Palace,  the  throne,  and  the 
king.  The  history  of  these  monarchs  informs  us  that 
no  one  could  approach  them  unveiled  and  uncalled, 
without  peril  of  life,  and  that  into  the  inner  court  of 
the  harem,  no  person  ever  entered  but  the  king  and  the 
woman  he  had  called.  No  one  of  his  court,  neither  the 
prime  minister,  nor  the  queen  herself,  ever  dared  to  go 
into  this  chamber,  unless  ordered  to  do  so,  or  led  by  the 
king  himself  into  it.  And  in  this  case,  the  queen's 
difficulty  was  increased  by  the  fact  that,  the  king  had 
not  called  her  for  thirty  -days.  And  according  to 
Herodotus,  after  the  time  of  Deioces,  king  of  Media,  in 
order  that  the  person  of  the  king  might  be  more  secure, 
it  was  a  law  that  no  one  should  be  admitted  into  his 


THE  QUEEN'S  PREPARATIONS.      197 

presence,  when  on  the  throne,  until  special  leave  had 
been  obtained.  The  ordinary  rule  was  that  all  business 
with  the  king  was  to  be  transacted  through  the  medium 
of  his  ministers. 

But  the  hour  has  come  when  Esther  must  either  find 
favor  for  herself  and  her  people,  or  forfeit  her  life  and 
leave  her  crown  to  another.  She  has  been  grieved, 
alarmed,  and  deeply  agitated ;  but  she  feels  that  she  is 
in  the  way  of  duty,  and  now  on  the  third  day  of  the 
fast,  she  suspends  her  prayers  to  adorn  herself  for  the 
presence  of  the  king.  With  the  courage  and  resolution 
of  a  queen,  and  the  piety  of  a  Hebrew,  she  begins  her 
preparation  for  the  great  trial.  Her  face  now  assumes 
its  wonted  cheerful  and  beauteous  expression.  Her 
abstinence  and  devotions  have  made  her  more  beau 
tiful  than  ever.  The  same  God  that  was  with  Joseph 
in  Egypt,  and  with  Moses  in  the  wilderness,  and  with 
Daniel  and  his  companions  in  Babylon,  has  been  with 
her  in  Susa.  The  pulse  and  water,  with  God's  bless 
ing,  was  a  better  diet  for  the  Hebrews  than  the  king's 
meat  and  wine,  so  that  at  the  end  of  the  ten  days,  their 
countenances  appeared  fairer  and  fatter  in  flesh,  than 
all  the  children  which  did  eat  the  portion  of  the  king's 
meat.  Dan.  i :  15.  And  it  was  just  so  here,  God 
whom  she  worshipped,  made  her  the  more  beautiful, 
because  of  her  humiliation  before  Him,  and  because 
she  had  put  her  trust  in  Him,  and  was  now  offering  her 
life  as  a  sacrifice  to  him,  for  the  sake  of  his  people. 

There  is  something  worthy  of  special  notice  in  the 
difference  of  her  preparation,  this  time,  for  going  be 
fore  the  king,  and  her  preparation  for  meeting  him 
the  first  time.  Under  the  tuition  of  the  chief  of- 


198  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

ficer  of  the  hareni,  she  was  prepared  with  myrrh  and 
sweet  odors,  and  kept  twelve  months  in  a  state  of 
purification,  that  she  might  be  reckoned  fit  to  be  pre 
sented  to  the  king.  But  here  she  has  not  the  assist 
ance  of  Hege,  and  has  only  three  days,  and  they  are 
spent,  not  in  the  sweet  baths  and  in  the  vigorous  use  of 
oils  and  odors,  but  in  fasting  and  prayer.  As  far  as 
her  personal  appearance  could  avail  in  her  behalf,  it 
was  chiefly  her  face  that  was  to  win  the  king,  and  this 
she  makes  thin  and  pale  by  abstinence  and  mental 
agony.  Would  not  the  wisdom  of  this  world  have 
pampered  the  flesh,  that  the  wanton  eyes  of  a  Pagan 
king  might  be  the  more  easily  inflamed  ?  It  was  the 
queen's  faith  that  taught  her  to  languish  to  please — to 
trust  in  prayer  rather  than  in  carnal  beauty — to  rely 
on  Glod  to  touch  the  king's  heart,  rather  than  anything 
she  could  do  herself,  and  yet  she  was  assiduously 
using  all  and  the  very  best  means  within  her  power  to 
make  her  effort  successful.  All  things  being  done  by 
herself,  and  her  people  and  Mordecai — being  at  peace 
with  God,  and  having  her  cause  right  in  His  sight,  the 
queen  now  prepares  to  go  to  the  king.  Never  did  she 
take  so  much  pains  with  her  toilet.  Never  before  did 
she  direct  her  long  black  tresses  to  be  so  carefully 
braided  over  her  polished  forehead — never  before  did 
she  use  so  much  skill  in  trying  to  enhance  her  every 
personal  charm,  and  make  her  beauty  irresistible  to  the 
king.  She  was  arrayed  with  the  snow-white  woolen 
stuffs  of  Damascus  and  the  roseate  silks  of  Persia ;  the 
royal  tiara  of  twisted  silk  and  gold  sparkling  with  most 
precious  jewels,  and  proclaiming  her  rank  and  relation 
to  the  king,  while,  at  the  same  time,  it  set  off  her 


THE    KING'S    APPEARANCE.  199 

figure  to  great  advantage — over  her  shoulders  flowed 
the  purple  velvet  mantle,  embroidered  on  the  edge 
with  heavy  pearls.  And  never  did  royal  robes  become 
her  so  well.  She  looked  more  like  a  goddess,  dropped 
from  the  clouds,  than  a  being  of  clay.  Her  maidens 
were  also  very  beautiful,  and  most  elegantly  arrayed. 
When  she  came  to  the  threshhold  of  the  palace,  she 
stopped  a  moment  to  breathe  a  fervent  prayer,  and  swal 
low  down  the  choking  sensation  that  almost  suffocated 
her,  and  to  gather  up  her  failing  strength,  and  then 
she  passed  into  the  throne-room,  where  sat  the  king, 
with  his  golden  sceptre  in  his  hand,  and  surrounded 
with  his  nobles,  and  the  crown  upon  his  head.  .  The 
king  was  an  aged  man — his  locks  were  long  and  white 
as  snow,  and  his  beard  soft  and  glossy  as  a  Turk's  of 
three-score  years,  flowing  down  upon  his  breast,  after 
the  manner  of  Mehemet  Ali.  His  robe  was  of  Persian 
purple  and  strips  of  silver;  his  diadem  was  massive  with 
priceless  gems — the  richest  crown  then  on  earth.  His 
tunic  was  a  brilliant  mass  of  gold  and  jewels.  The 
throne  was  of  ivory,  all  glittering  with  gold  and  pre 
cious  stones.  Though  his  arms  were  long,  he  was  con-< 
sidered  a  very  handsome  man.  And,  under  such  cir 
cumstances,  thus  arrayed,  in  a  magnificent  saloon  of 
marble,  inlaid  with  ivory  and  the  most  costly  sweet 
woods,  and  hung  with  cloth  of  gold  tissue,  and  an  im 
mense  plane-tree,  wrought  in  gold,  overhanging  his 
throne,  his  appearance  must  have  been  splendid,  and 
well  calculated  to  fill  a  spectator  with  awe.  As  the 
queen  entered,  the  king,  hearing  a  slight  ruffling,  as  of 
feinale  robes,  turned  to  see  who  it  was,  and,  behold ! 
before  him  stands  Esther,  speechless.  The  paleness  of 


200  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

her  cheeks,  from  mental  agony  and  fasting,  made  her 
face  more  transparent;  and,  as  she  stood,  shrinking 
from  fear,  the  king  must  have  detected  a  shadow  of 
melancholy,  if  not  of  great  suffering.  Her  penciled 
brow  was  slightly  contracted  by  the  intensity  of  her 
feelings,  and  her  long  lashes  were  dripping  with  tears, 
and  her  lips  trembling  with  agitation.  More  beautiful 
than  ever,  and  though  silent,  her  eloquence  was  enough 
to  have  moved  a  heart  of  stone.  The  apocryphal 
chapters  of  this  history  are  more  full  and  minute  than 
our  text,  but  in  no  way  contradictory  to  it.  According 
to  them,  when  Esther  saw  the  king,  surrounded  with 
his  nobles,  and  recollecting  the  fate  of  Vashti,  and 
knowing  that  she  was  setting  at  defiance  a  law  of  the 
palace,  and  that  the  king  was  a  man  of  violent  passions, 
and  exceedingly  fierce  in  his  jealousy  for  his  personal 
honor  and  the  dignity  of  his  throne,  her  heart  failed 
her,  and,  fainting,  she  fell  into  the  arms  of  her  maids. 
And  when  the  king  first  saw  her,  he  was  greatly  en 
raged,  but,  as  he  gazed  upon  her  lovely  form,  his  heart 
began  to  soften.  The  nobles  and  princes,  also,  were 
moved  with  silent  sympathy,  for  they  all  loved  Esther; 
and  though  they  dared  not  open  their  lips  to  plead  her 
cause,  yet  their  eyes  and  countenances  spoke  as  plainly 
as  if  every  line  of  their  faces  were  a  fiery  tongue.  In 
breathless  awe  the  whole  court  watched  the  king's  face, 
for  it  shone  with  terrible  fierceness,  waiting  for  the 
issue.  By  her  very  appearance,  the  queen  says,  No 
thing  but  an  affair  of  life  or  death  could  have  brought 
me  into  this  awful  presence.  Her  marble  lips,  as  she 
lies  in  the  arms  of  her  maidens,  say  :  "  Oh,  dread  sire, 
my  lord  and  my  husband,  the  sovereign  of  all  the 


THE    CRISIS    JOYFULLY   PAST.  201 

provinces  from  India  to  Ethiopia,  it  is  dire  necessity, 
not  any  wish  to  disobey  your  laws,  that  has  constrained 
me  to  appear  before  you,  uncalled.     And,  now,  I  am 
ready,  live  or  die,  as  it  shall  seem  good  to  your  impe 
rial   majesty.     I   remember   my   predecessor  lost   her 
crown  for  not  coming  when  sent  for,  and  I  know  I  put 
my  life  into  your  hands  by  coming,  unbidden,  into  your 
presence.     But  may  I  not  hope  for  your   pardon  ?" 
But,  as  yet,  no  sign  is  given.     The  haughty  king  has 
not  yet  spoken.     His  thoughts  of  dignity,  power  and 
fame — of  his  vast  empire  of  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
seven    provinces — are    in    conflict   with    his    feelings. 
And,  oh,  king  Ahasuerus !  must  this  lovely  creature 
die  ?   No.     God  changed  the  king's  spirit  into  mildness, 
and,   unable  any  longer  to  dissemble  his  feelings,  he 
leaped  from  his  throne,  and  took  her  up  in  his  arms, 
laid  the  golden  sceptre  on  her  neck,  and  spoke  to  her 
in  the  most  endearing  manner,  saying,  Thou  shalt  not 
die  ;  I  am  thy  brother.      What  ivilt  thou,  qiieen  Esther  ? 
And  no  wonder  that  a  king  was  overcome  with  such 
transcendent  beauty  and  loveliness,  when,  like  a  snow- 
wreath,  she  sunk  at  his  feet  in  the  consciousness  of  a 
painful  duty  well  done.     No  wonder  the  whole  court 
was  a  sobbing  gallery,  when  they  saw  the  queen   was 
saved.     Tears  of  joy  —  of  relief,  rolled  from  every  eye, 
as  they  saw  the  crisis  past.     And  now,  the  queen  re 
viving,  touched  the  golden  sceptre  in  token  of  perfect 
submission;  and  then  she  said  to  the  king,  "When  I  saw 
thee,  thy  terrible  majesty  made  me  afraid,  and  I  thought 
you  would  be  to  me  as  an  avenging  angel,  and  my  heart 
troubled  me,  and  my  strength  went  from  me."     Think 
no  more  of  it,  my  lovely  queen,  said  the  king.      What 

9B 


202  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

is  tliy  request  and  it  shall  be  given  thee,  to  the  half  of 
the  kingdom.  "  Only  thife,  my  lord,  if  it  seern  good 
unto  the  king,  let  the  king  and  my  lord,  prince  Hainan, 
come  this  day  unto  the  banquet  that  I  have  prepared 
for  him."  Womanlike,  no  sooner  has  she  conquered 
than  she  is  prepared  to  make  the  most  of  the  victory, 
nor  will  she  risk  her  influence  now  by  telling  him  all 
she  really  wants,  but  only  asks  the  king,  and  his  favor 
ite,  to  a  banquet  with  her  the  next  day. 

1.  Observe  the  queen's  modesty  —  her  extraordinary 
prudence  at  the  very  moment  that  she  is  most  success 
ful.  Her  request  was  a  simple  invitation  to  have  the 
king  come  to  a  banquet  of  wine  the  next  day,  and  as  a 
mark  of  regard  for  his  preferences,  she  wishes  him  to 
bring  Hainan.  I  do  not  say,  however,  that  she  may 
not  also  have  thought  this  a  good  way  to  prevent  his 
suspicions  from  being  awakened,  and  to  keep  him  from 
adopting  any  hasty  measures  against  the  Jews.  It  was 
wise  to  show  this  much  respect  for  the  king's  partiality, 
and  then  it  served  to  secure  his  presence  when  his  plot 
was  to  be  unmasked  to  the  king.  The  queen  put  her  life 
in  danger,  and  she  not  only  lives,  but  obtains  favor  be 
sides  pardon.  The  king  promises  her  half  of  his  king 
dom.  He  had,  at  Hainan's  demand,  given  him  the 
lives  and  the  goods  of  all  the  Jewish  race;  but  here, 
before  she  has  asked  for  anything,  the  king  offers  the 
queen  half  his  kingdom.  This  must  have  astonished 
her  as  much  as  she  had  been  in  fear  of  his  imperious 
temper.  But  recovering  herself  as  she  remembered 
that  a  the  king's  heart  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Lord;  as 
the  rivers  of  water,  He  turneth  it  withersoever  He  will," 


PIETY   IN    HIGH   PLACES.  203 

she  did  not  prefer  her  great  request  at  once.  She 
wished  to  have  the  king  more  fully  prepared  for  so  im 
portant  a  matter.  It  is  not  good  breeding,  nor  wise 
policy,  u  to  swallow  favors  too  greedily,  lest  they  either 
choke  us  in  the  passage,  or  prove  hard  of  digestion." 

2.  In  Esther's  fasting  and  prayer,  and  pious  cour 
age,  we  see  that  faith  and  piety  are  not  always  shorn  of 
their  fruits  under  unfavorable    influences;   they  may 
flourish  in  a  palace.     The  atmosphere  of  the  court  of 
Susa,  and  the  power  of  a  Persian  husband,  have  not 
crushed  out  all   Mordecai's  catechism  from  her  soul. 
In   every  condition   of  life,  if  we  are  faithful  to  our 
selves,  the  grace  of  God  is  sufficient  for  us.     A  slave 
in  the  field,  or  in  the  mines,  or  in   the  galleys;  or  a 
member  of  Nero's  court,  or  near  Belshazzar's  throne; 
in  Egypt  or  Persia,  at  home  or  abroad,  the  grace  of 
God  is  promised  to  us   according  to  our  day.     As  the 
sun  makes  the  laughing  waves  to  glisten,  and  the  high 
mountains  to  shine  with  light,  and  yet  makes  glad  the 
weary  captive  in  his  dungeon,  or  in  the  dark  recesses 
of   the  noisy  mill,  so  the  Grospel  dignifies  a  throne, 
and  makes  glad  a  hovel.     In  a  chaotic  state  of  society, 
a  pious  man  may  have  greater  difficulties  to  overcome 
in  maintaining  a  goldy  walk,  but  then,  in  overcoming 
these  difficulties,  he  will  gain  a  greater  degree  of  spir 
itual   strength.      Where  there   are  trials   to    develop 
the  strength  of  one's  character,  there  the  good  will  be 
like  Jeremiah's  figs,  very  good,  and  the  bad  will  be 
very  bad. 

3.  Queen  Esther  was  a  true  representative  woman. 
Every  one  is  raise'd  up  as  she  was,  not  to  be  a  Sultana, 


204  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

and  do  just  the  work  she  did,  but  to  do  his  or  her  own 
work.  Every  one  has  a  duty  to  perform — a  post  to 
maintain — a  lot  to  fulfill.  Every  one  of  us  is  brought 
to  the  kingdom,  at  such  a  time,  and  under  such  cir 
cumstances  as  God  sees  best  to  order,  and  it  is  our  first 
and  highest  duty  to  improve  them  all  for  His  glory. 
Mordecai's  great  argument  with  the  queen  was,  that 
God  had  raised  her  up  at  that  very  time  to  the  throne 
of  Persia,  that  she  might  do  this  service  for  His  church. 
It  is  a  great  blessing  that  we  have  been  made  to  do 
something,  and  happy  is  he  who  finds  his  work,  and 
does  it  with  a  hearty  good  will.  There  is  a  work  for 
every  one  of  us.  Let  us  be  diligent  and  careful  in 
performing  it,  lest  we  let  our  opportunities  slip  for 
serving  our  generation.  The  providence  of  God  may 
not  design  us  to  sit  on  thrones  like  that  of  Persia,  but 
we  have  our  duty  to  do  just  as  much  as  Esther  had. 
We  are  all  God's  stewards,  and  will  have  to  render  a 
strict  account  of  all  the  gifts,  graces  and  opportunities 
bestowed  upon  us.  We  must  watch  for  opportunities 
to  do  good,  and  to  arrest  evil.  We  must  ever  be  ready 
to  follow  the  leadings  of  Providence. 

4.  It  may  sometimes  be  our  duty  to  ourselves,  our 
country,  our  fellow-men  and  our  God,  to  put  our  lives 
in  jeopardy  for  the  truth,  or  for  the  church,  and  for 
the  sake  of  Jesus.  This  Samson  did  when  his  hair  grew 
and  his  strength  returned,  and  he  prayed  and  pulled 
down  the  heathen  temple.*  This  is  just  what  David  did 
when  he  went  to  meet  the  giant  of  Gath.  The  proph 
ets  and  apostles  did  not  think  of  saving  their  lives,  but 
only  of  serving  God  faithfully.  So,  in  our  history, 

*  See  my  volume,  "  The  Giant  Judge/'  pp.  303-5. 


ALWAYS   DO    OUR   DUTY.  205 

Esther's  duty  was  plain.  True  piety  ought  to  make  men 
brave.  It  is  not  for  a  Christian  to  shrink  from  duty 
for  fear  of  death,  or  persecution.  We  ought,  says  an 
apostle,  to  lay  down  our  lives  for  the  brethren,  for 
Christ  gave  his  life  a  ransom  for  us.  Our  lives  are 
His — we  ought  to  surrender  them  then  at  His  call. 

5.  We  should  never  fear  to  do  our  duty.  The  Grod 
whom  we  serve  is  able  either  to  sustain  us  under  our 
trials,  or  to  deliver  us  out  of  them.  He  will  always  do 
one  or  the  other.  His  compassion  cannot  fail.  Like 
as  a  father  pitiethhis  children,  so  the  Lord  pitieth  them 
that  fear  Him.  Why,  then,  should  we  shrink  from 
any  degree  of  suffering  or  of  persecution  ?  Why  should 
we  ever  fear  to  avow  our  principles,  or  ever  turn  aside 
from  the  performance  of  a  trying  duty  ?  Why  should 
we  yield  to  the  fear  of  man,  that  bringeth  a  snare, 
seeing  we  are  in  the  hands  of  Him  who  holdeth  the 
hearts  of  all  men  and  of  devils  in  his  hand?  Satan 
could  not  sift  Peter,  nor  touch  an  article  of  Job's  es 
tate,  nor  a  hair  of  his  head,  till  express  leave  was 
granted  him.  And  so  it  is  now.  All  our  foes  are 
chained  j  and  the  extent  of  their  reach  is  determined 
by  the  pleasure  of  Him  who  loved  us  so  much  as  to  die 
for  us.  It  is  His  purpose  to  destroy  the  works  of  the 
Devil.  If  he  careth  for  us,  it  is  enough.  Let  us  com 
mit  our  cares  to  Him,  and  go  on  our  way  rejoicing.  It 
is  sinful  to  pass  our  time  on  earth  in  bondage  to  the 
fear  of  death — or  in  slavish  apprehensions  of  any  evil. 
Sufficient  for  the  day  is  the  evil,  and  sufficient  also  is 
the  grace  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Why  should  we 
indulge  tormenting  fear  about  health  or  comfort  ?  All 


206  THE   HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

things  are  in  our  Heavenly  Father's  hands,  and  He 
knoweth  what  we  have  need  of.  If  he  says,  let  Provi 
dence  prosper  that  man,  it  is  done.  He  succeeds.  For 
the  blessing  of  the  Lord  maketh  rich.  If  He  says,  let 
floods  and  fires,  plague  and  pestilence,  be  abroad  on  the 
earth — it  is  done.  And  men  are  poor,  and  sick,  and 
dying.  But  if  He  says  to  sickness,  touch  not  my  ser 
vants  'j  then  the  pestilence  may  walk  in  darkness,  and 
the  destruction  rage  at  noon-day;  and  a  thousand  may 
fall  at  his  side,  and  ten  thousand  at  his  right  hand,  and 
it  shall  not  come  nigh  him.  We  are  immortal  till  our 
change  comes.  While  God  has  work  for  us  to  do,  He 
will  uphold  us,  and  when  His  will  is  fulfilled  with  us 
in  this  world,  then  we  should  go  cheerfully  to  another. 

6.  The  privilege  and  efficacy  of  prayer.  The  mur 
derous  plot  for  the  extermination  of  all  the  Hebrews  in 
the  world,  to  human  eyes,  seems  perfect.  But  God's 
thoughts  are  not  as  our  thoughts.  By  the  breath  of 
the  God  of  their  fathers,  all  this  grand  contrivance, 
stretching  through  so  vast  an  empire,  and  employing 
so  many  agencies,  shall  become  as  desert  sand  before 
the  wind,  and  be  blown  back  in  an  overwhelming  mass 
upon  its  author.  But  Mordecai,  the  queen  and  the 
people,  all  work  together.  They  have  all  committed 
their  cause  to  God,  by  fasting  and  prayer ;  and  while  the 
people  and  Mordecai  continue  pleading  with  the  King 
of  kings,  the  queen  put  her  life  in  peril,  and  went  to  plead 
for  favor  from  the  great  king  of  Persia.  The  queen's 
example  is  worthy  of  imitation,  in  two  particulars, 
namely :  First,  as  Henry  remarks,  here  is  an  example  of 
a  mistress  praying  with  her  maids,  that  is  worthy  of 


EFFICACY   OF   PRAYER.  207 

being  followed  by  all  house-keepers  and  heads  of  fami 
lies.  And,  secondly,  we  are  here  encouraged  to  ask  the 
sympathy  and  prayers  of  others,  when  we  undertake 
any  great  or  perilous  enterprise.  And  especially  are 
those  who  are  called,  in  the  providence  of  God,  to  stand 
forth  boldly  in  perilous  aervices,  in  the  high  places  of 
the  Church  and  of  the  State,  entitled  to  the  united  pray 
ers  of  their  brethren.  When  Peter  was  put  in  prison, 
the  Church  made  prayer  unceasingly  for  him,  and  God 
sent  his  angel  to  deliver  him.  How  often  and  earnestly 
does  the  great  apostle  ask  for  the  prayers  of  believers  ? 
And  how  instructive  the  fact,  that,  while  the  Jewish 
High  Priest  was  within  the  Holy  of  Holies,  making  in 
tercession  for  the  people,  the  people  were  all  praying 
without.  And  while  Joshua  leads  on  God's  hosts 
amidst  the  Amalekites,  Moses  stands  praying,  and 
Aaron  and  Hurr  hold  up  his  hands;  and  the  battle 
waxes  or  wanes  as  the  praying  prevails  or  grows  slack. 
Wonderful  is  the  efficacy  of  prayer.  It  was  in  answer 
to  prayer  the  God  of  Esther's  pious  fathers  moved  the 
heart  of  the  king  to  hold  out  the  golden  sceptre.  And 
her  bold  approach  to  the  king  is  a  fit  illustration  of 
prayer.  Our  Lord,  from  the  Parable  of  the  Unjust 
Judge,  has  taught  us  that  men  ought  always  to  pray, 
and  not  to  faint.  Esther  came  to  a  proud,  imperious, 
sinful  man ;  we  come  to  the  God  of  love  and  grace. 
She  came  uncalled — nay,  not  only  not  called,  but  for 
bidden,  by  law,  to  come,  upon  pain  of  death — we  are 
invited.  The  Spirit  and  the  Bride  say  come.  She 
came  with  a  law  against  her,  in  her  face ;  we  come, 
pleading  the  invitations  and  promises  of  the  Gospel. 
God  invites  the  broken-hearted  and  the  contrite  in 


208  THE    HEBREW-PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

spirit  into  His  presence.  Queen  Esther  had  no  friend 
near  the  throne  who  dared  to  open  his  lips  to  plead  her 
cause.  The  king's  favorite  was  her  greatest  enemy. 
But,  brethren,  if  any  man  sin,  we  have  an  Advocate 
with  the  Father,  even  his  own  Son,  Jesus  Christ,  our 
Lord.  He  ever  liveth,  to  make  intercession  for  us. 
The  golden  sceptre  in  His  hands  is  always  stretched 
out.  He  is  touched  with  a  fellow-feeling  for  our  in 
firmities. 

7.  One  of  the  gracious  designs  of  affliction  is  to 
make  us  feel  our  dependence  upon  God.  A  gracious 
result  of  trials  to  the  people  of  God,  is  that  it  drives 
them  to  prayer.  But  the  court  of  heaven  is  not  like 
that  of  Persia,  into  which  there  was  no  entrance  for 
those  that  were  in  mourning,  or  clothed  with  sackcloth. 
Such  could  not  come  near  the  palace  of  Ahasuerus. 
But  it  is  the  weary,  the  heavy  laden  and  the  sorrowing, 
that  are  especially  invited  to  the  throne  of  grace,  and 
invited  to  come  boldly.  Is  any  among  you  afflicted, 
saith  the  apostle  James,  let  him  pray.  Call  upon  me, 
saith  the  Lord,  in  the  day  of  trouble,  and  I  will  deliver 
thee.  Doubtless  the  iminent  peril  into  which  the  Jews 
were  brought,  was  to  remind  them  of  their  dependence 
on  the  God  of  their  fathers.  They  were,  as  we  are, 
ready  to  forget  him,  and  especially  so,  when  far  from 
home.  But  now  that  there  seems  to  be  no  other  ear  to 
hear,  no  other  hand  that  can  save,  they  are  brought  to 
their  knees — and  with  fasting,  and  humility,  and  fer 
vency  of  spirit — they  call  upon  God,  that  peradventure 
He  will  be  gracious  to  them.  It  was  so  also  with 
Manasseh.  And  it  was  when  the  prodigal  began  to  be 
in  want,  he  thought  of  returning  home.  Afflictions  sane- 


THE    GREAT   RESOLVE.  209 

tified  are  blessings.  And  how  exceedingly  appropriate 
for  you;  poor  sinner,  is  the  queen's  resolve.  As  a  sin 
ner,  you  are  condemned,  and  under  sentence  of  death. 
There  is  no  escape  for  you  but  to  believe  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  Nor  is  there  a  moment  to  lose.  To 
morrow,  even  to-morrow,  may  be  too  late.  Remember, 
then,  that  Jesus  Christ  came  to  seek  and  save  that 
which  is  lost.  He  casts  out  none  that  come  unto  Him. 
He  is  the  sinner's  friend.  Try  his  love  this  one  time, 
by  casting  yourself  as  a  guilty  sinner  upon  his  mercy. 
Say  with  the  hymn : 

I'll  go  to  Jesus  though  my  sin 

High  as  a  mountain  rose, 
I  know  his  court,  I'll  enter  in 

Whatever  may  oppose. 

Perhaps  he  will  admit  my  plea, 

Perhaps  will  hear  my  prayer  ; 
But  if  I  perish,  I  will  pray, 

And  perish  only  there. 

I  can  but  perish  if  I  go, 

I  am  resolved  to  try ; 
For  if  I  stay  away,  I  know 

I  must  forever  die. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 


THE    BANQUET   AND    THE    SLEEPLESS    KING. 


"  No  action,  whether  foul  or  fair, 
Is  ever  done,  but  it  leaves  somewhere 
A  record,  written  by  fingers  ghostly, 

As  a  blessing  or  a  curse. " 

Longfellow, 

WE  have  seen  that  the  king  promised  to  attend  the 
queen's  "banquet,  and  ordered  Hainan  to  make  haste, 
that  he  might  do  as  Esther  had  said.  /So  the  king  and 
Haman  came  to  the  banquet  that  Esther  had  prepared. 
See  verses  6,  7  and  8  of  the  fifth  chapter  of  Esther. 

At  the  banquet  the  king  is  delighted,  and  demands 
of  the  queen  what  she  desired,  and  declares  that  her 
request,  even  to  the  half  of  the  kingdom,  shall  be  gran 
ted.  This  seems  to  have  been  a  common  form  of  court 
promises,  meaning  that  nothing  would  be  denied. 
Herod  made  a  similar  proposition,  but  instead  of  giving 
half  of  his  kingdom,  in  compliance  with  a  wicked  wo 
man's  request,  he  gave  her  the  head  of  John  the  Baptist, 
which  was  of  more  value  than  the  whole  of  his  king 
dom. 

Among  the  Persians  and  Orientals,  generally,  wine 
banquets  were  common,  they  seem  to  have  been  de- 


212  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

signed  chiefly  for  pleasure,  rather  than  for  eating — de 
lightful  social  intercourse,  and  as  tokens  or  occasions 
of  showing  honor,  rather  than  for  the '  gratification  of 
the  appetites — "the  feast  of  reason  and  flow  of  soul" 
— "a  dejuner  sans  fourchette."  Our  authors  are  not 
agreed,  however,  whether  the  wine  banquet  was  before 
or  after  the  principal  meal,  or  whether  it  was  a  feast 
above  and  independent  of  all  other  kinds  of  fare.  It 
is  clear,  however,  that  some  of  their  wine  banquets 
comprised  fruits,  and  mutton,  rice,  fowls,  game,  as  well 
as  Shiraz  wines. 

And  the  queen  answered,  "My  petition,  and  my  re 
quest  is,  if  I  have  found  favor  with  the  king,  let  him 
and  Hainan  come  to  the  banquet  that  I  shall  prepare 
for  them  to-morrow."  Now  why  did  not  the  queen  at 
once  acquaint  the  king  with  the  matter  so  much  in  her 
heart?  We  answer,  by  delaying  her  petition  she 
showed  that  it  was  one  of  no  ordinary  importance — 
proved  her  modesty  and  self-command — and  perhaps 
she  was  a  little  daunted  by  the  king's  august  presence — 
her  heart  may  have  been  ready  to  fail  her — and  per 
haps  she  thought  it  best  to  try  how  far  she  had  gained 
on  the  king's  affections,  and  to  test  the  influence  she 
had  over  him — and  perhaps  she  thought  to-morrow  the 
king  will  be  more  amiable  and  ready  to  grant  my  peti 
tion;  or,  in  the  meantime,  Hainan  may  show  some 
signs  of  insolence,  or  make  himself  less  agreeable  to 
the  king,  or  Grod  may,  in  some  way,  display  his  power, 
and  open  up  some  other  door  of  hope — whether  any 
or  all  of  these  thoughts  passed  through  her  mind,  we  do 
not  know;  but  it  is  recorded  that  the  queen  deemed  it 
most  becoming — that  it  was  wisest  to  engage  the  king's 


TRUSTING   AND   WORKING.  213 

affection  by  a  second  entertainment  before  she  made 
him  acquainted  with  the  great  matters  that  were  on 
her  heart.  And,  above  all,  I  see  no  inconsistency  in 
supposing  that  she  was  influenced  to  this  delay  by  a 
kind  Providence,  to  make  way  for  the  events  of  the 
coming  night,  that  were  to  prepare  the  king  for  the 
success  of  her  enterprise.  It  was  a  wise  policy,  on  her 
part,  to  repeat  the  banquet,  for  thereby  she  was  gain 
ing  the  confidence  of  the  king,  and  strengthening  her 
forces  for  the  great  demand  j  but  God's  hand  was  in  it 
also,  for,  speaking,  after  the  manner  of  men,  Providence 
wished  to  gain  time  for  the  developments  of  the  follow 
ing  night,  and  succeeding  day,  of  which  we  have  an 
account  in  the  sixth  chapter  of  Esther.  It  is  not  heresy 
to  say  that  Providence  usually  helps  the  bravest  and 
best  disciplined  troops.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  genuine 
orthodox  Calvinism  to  trust  in  God  and  keep  the  gun 
powder  dry.  It  is  an  interesting  theological  and  his- 
torico-philosophical  fact,  that  the  very  men  who  have 
believed  most  thoroughly  in  the  Divine  Sovereignty, 
are  the  very  men  that  have  been  distinguished  as  the 
hard  workers  of  the  race.  Witness  Paul,  Calvin,  Knox, 
Cromwell,  Napoleon  and  Edwards.  The  belief  that 
God  works  in  us  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure, 
is  the  strongest  possible  motive  to  put  forth  our  own 
eiforts  in  the  same  direction. 

From  this  first  banquet  "  Hainan  went  forth  joyful 
and  with  a  glad  heart;  but  when  he  saw  Mordecai  in 
the  king's  gate,  that  he  stood  not  up,  nor  moved  for 
him,  he  was  full  of  indignation  against  Mordecai." 
Nevertheless  he  refrained  himself  from  taking  sudden 
and  summary  vengeance  upon  him,  but  goes  home  full 


214  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN   QUEEN. 

of  pride  and  rage — of  pride  because  of  the  honor  he 
had  received  in  being  called  to  the  queen's  banquet 
with  the  king  alone,  and  full  of  rage  because  Mordecai 
would  not  do  him  homage.  But  when  he  reaches  his 
palace,  he  calls  his  friends,  and  his  wife  Zeresh,  and 
tells  them,  in  true  oriental  style,  of  "  the  glory  of  his 
riches,  and  the  multitude  of  his  children,  and  how  the 
king  had  advanced  him  above  the  princes,  all  his  ser 
vants,  and  even  the  queen  did  let  no  man  come  in  with 
the  king  unto  the  banquet  but  himself;  and  to-morrow 
am  I  invited  unto  her  also  with  the  king." 

Observe  here:  1.  How  Grod  restrained  the  heart  of 
a  wicked  man.  Haman  could  easily  have  had  Morde 
cai  put  to  death.  He  had  the  king's  signet  ring  to 
take  measures  to  kill,  root  up,  and  destroy  every  mem 
ber  of  the  hated  Hebrew  race.  By  his  own  hand,  or 
that  of  his  servants,  therefore,  he  could  have  destroyed 
Mordecai  at  once.  But  an  unseen  power  controlled 
him.  Divine  Providence  disposed  of  the  case  until 
the  plot  should  ripen. 

2.  Hainan's  'glorying  preceded  his  fall.  Pride  com- 
eth  before  destruction.  Even  the  wisdom  of  Ahitho- 
phel  is  perfect  folly  when  the  Lord  curses  a  man.  It 
is  by  no  means  an  uncommon  thing  for  us  to  make 
fatal  mistakes  in  our  ignorance,  and  to  rejoice  when 
we  should  fear,  and  to  sorrow  for  things  that  either 
never  happen,  or  if  they  do,  turn  to  our  joy  and  com 
fort.  In  Haman's  boasting  while  he  gratified  his  own 
vanity,  he  designed,  no  doubt,  to  aggravate  Morde 
cai' s  impudence  in  the  mind  of  his  friends.  Favors 
are  sometimes  done  by  men  to  their  fellow-men  for  the 


215 


purpose  of  ensnaring  them.  And  even  in  the  provi 
dence  of  God,  we  find  men  allowed  to  wax  fat,  or  to 
grow  rich  and  great,  in  order  that  they  may  make  a 
full  trial  of  themselves,  and  prove  to  themselves,  and 
to  the  world,  what  is  in  their  hearts.  So  here,  Haman 
is  honored  with  the  king.  The  queen  does  not  invite 
the  king  without  Haman.  Nor  can  he  read  the  queen's 
heart.  He  sees  not,  on  her  face,  the  petition  which 
she  is  preparing  to  lay  before  the  king,  which  is  to 
cover  him  with  shame,  and  send  him  to  hang  on  his 
own  gallows. 

3.  Hainan's  riches  and  glory,   and  children,    how 
ever,  were  not  enough.      Yet  all  this  availetli  me  noth 
ing,  so  long  as  I  see  Mordecai  the  Jew,  sitting  at  the 
king's  gate.     His  malice  is  equal  only  to  his  envy,  and 
his  envy  is  equalled  only  by  his  bitter  prejudice  against 
the  Jews.     No  honor,  no  privilege,  did  he  allow  to  a 
Jew,  much  less  to  one  who,  like  Mordecai,  would  not 
worship  him.     What  a  cloudy  epilogue  is  this,  after  so 
much  royal  sunshine !     How  impatient  his  malice — 
how  unrelenting  his  hate !     Already  he  has  fixed  on 
the  month  Adar  for  the  slaughter  of  all  the  Jews,  as 
well  as  of  Mordecai,  but  he  is  not  willing  to  wait. 

4.  Observe  the  wife's  advice.     "  Then  said  Zeresh, 
his  wife,  and  all  his  friends  unto  him,  let  a  gallows  be 
made  fifty  cubits  high,  and  to-morrow  speak  thou  unto 
the  king  that  Mordecai  may  be  hanged  thereon;  then 
go  thou  in  merrily  with  the  king  unto  the  banquet.    And 
the  thing  pleased  Haman;  and  he  caused  the  gallows 
to  be  made.5'     Fifty  cubits  high — say  seventy-five  feet. 
The  highth  was  intended  to  deepen  the  disgrace  of 


216       THE  HEBREW- PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

Mordecai,  and  strike  terror  into  the  hearts  of  Hainan's 
enemies — as  if  Mordecai's  ignominy  was  to  be  measured 
by  the  hight  of  the  gallows.  From  the  ninth  verse  of 
the  seventh  chapter  of  Esther,  we  learn  that  this  gal 
lows  was  in  the  house  of  Haman ;  that  is  within  the 
square  court  yard  which  was  the  centre  of  his  palace 
buildings.  The  Hebrew  word  for  gallows,  ets,  signifies 
simply  wood,  tree  or  pole,  without  designating  the 
form.  It  was  probably  similar  in  its  construction  to 
the  gallows  of  modern  days,  or  in  the  shape  of  a  cross, 
such  as  was  afterward  used  by  the  Romans,  with  an 
extension  beam  for  the  rope.  It  appears  from  the  edicts 
of  the  Emperors  Justinian  and  Theodosius,  abolishing 
the  custom,  that  the  Jews,  in  the  early  ages  of  Chris 
tianity,  were  in  the  habit  of  burning  Haman  in  effigy, 
(as  is  now  sometimes  done  with  Judas  Iscariot  by 
Christians,)  and  with  him  a  wooden  cross,  in  imitation 
as  they  said,  of  the  gallows  which  he  had  prepared  for 
Mordecai,  but  which  the  early  Christians  thought  was 
intended  to  show  them  contempt.  In  the  earlier  ages 
of  the  church,  there  was  unfortunately  great  prejudice 
and  much  bitterness  between  Christians  and  Jews.  We 
see  it  in  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles,  and  in  the  Epistles, 
and  even  in  modern  times,  we  know  that  Christians 
have  persecuted  the  Jews,  and  perhaps  there  is  no  Gov 
ernment  in  the  world  but  our  own  that  is  wholly  free 
from  the  charge  of  some  intolerance,  illiberality  or  per 
secution  toward  the  Israelites.  Thank  God,  the  Gov 
ernment  of  the  United  States  has  never  shed  a  drop  of 
blood  in  persecuting  men  for  their  religious  opinions. 
May  this  be  true  of  it  forever ! 

But  we  have  now  to  go  from  Hainan's  council  cham- 


ANTIQUITY    OF    WRITING.  217 

ber  to  the  palace,  and  find  a  monarch  that  cannot  sleep. 
Though  the  throne  of  Persia  was  then  the  most  glo 
rious  on  earth,  its  master  could  not  sleep.  Every  lux 
ury,  every  anodyne  that  wealth  could  buy  was  his,  but 
the  king  could  not  sleep  that  night.  If  too  much  fruit 
and  wine  made  him  restless,  it  was  only  a  controlling 
providence  that  brought  out  the  result.  The  king's 
sleep  fled  away,  and  neither  Persian  scimitar  nor  cou 
rier  could  bring  it  back.  See  Esther  vi :  1,  3,  inclu 
sive. 

And  he  commanded  to  bring  the  book  of  records 
of  the  Chronicles.  When  and  by  whom  writing  was 
invented  is  not  known.  But  the  expression  of  thoughts 
and  the  recording  of  events,  by  characters  or  signs,  is 
as  old,  or  nearly  so,  as  the  race  of  man.  Writing-tables 
were  in  use  before  the  age  of  Homer,  for  he  speaks  of 
writing  pernicious  things  on  a  two-leaved  table. 
These  tables  were  made  of  wood,  consisting  of  two, 
three  or  five  leaves,  and  were  covered  with  wax,  and,  on 
these,  impressions  were  made  which  were  quite  durable 
and  easily  read.  It  was  a  Roman  custom  for  the  pon- 
tifex  maximus  to  commit  to  writing  the  public  affairs 
of  each  year,  and  publish  them  on  a  table,  so  that  the 
public  could  become  acquainted  with  them.  It  was, 
also,  their  custom  to  hang  up  the  laws  that  had  been 
regularly  made  and  approved,  and  recorded  on  tables  of 
brass,  in  the  market-places  and  in  their  temples  and 
places  of  public  resort,  that  they  might  be  seen  and 
read.  It  was  thus  the  edicts  of  the  Emperors  against 
the  Christians  were  published.  Even  in  the  life  of  so 
great  a  man  as  Cicero,  we  find  him  making  a  strenuous 
effort,  on  a  certain  occasion,  to  carry  off  the  brazen 
10 


218  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

tablets,  on  which  the  law  of  the  Senate  that  had  sent 
him  into  exile  was  engraved,  for  the  purpose  of  de 
stroying  them.  Expunging  resolutions  are  not,  there 
fore,  original  in  the  American  Congress.  It  were  well, 
however,  if  there  was  no  occasion  for  them. 

It  is  plain,  from  the  Bible,  that  the  Hebrew  prophets 
were  used  to  writing  and  making  public,  by  recording 
on  tables,  in  the  temple  or  in  their  own  houses,  so 
much  of  their  own  prophesyings  as  concerned  the  peo 
ple,  or  as  it  might  be  enjoined  upon  them  thus  to  pub 
lish.  Thus  Habbakuk  ii:  2:  "  And  the  LORD  an 
swered  me,  and  said,  Write  the  vision,  and  make  it 
plain  upon  tables,  that  he  may  run  that  readeth  it." 
And  Jeremiah  was  repeatedly  commanded  to  write 
down  his  visions.  And  we  know  that  the  Almighty 
wrote,  with  his  own  finger,  the  Ten  Commandments  on 
tables  of  stone.  If  the  art  of  writing  was  not  known 
before,  it  could  surely  have  been  learned  from  the  tables 
of  the  law.  But  if  the  Mosaic  Decalogue  is  not  the 
original  of  all  writing,  (and  I  do  not  say  it  is,)  it  is, 
nevertheless,  an  instance  of  the  knowledge  of  letters  in 
a  remote  age.  Moreover,  all  the  world  is  now  acquaint 
ed  with  the  fact,  that  the  history  of  cities  and  empires, 
and  of  great  conquerors,  especially  of  their  battles,  pris 
oners,  victories,  honors  and  offerings  to  their  gods,  was 
written,  in  olden  times,  on  clay  tablets,  bricks,  stones 
and  cylinders — on  the  walls  of  temples,  tombs  and 
palaces — and  that  this  kind  of  writing  goes  back  far 
beyond  the  reign  of  king  Ahasuerus  ;  and  that  we  have 
the  key  which  enables  us  to  read  these  monumental 
records.  There  is  nothing,  then,  contrary  to  history 
in  the  statement  that  the  sleepless  monarch  commanded 


PERSIAN    CHRONICLES.  219 

to  bring  the  book  of  records  of  the  Chronicles  to  be  read 
before  him.  These  chronicles  are  called,  by  Ctesias, 
diptherai  basilikai.  They  seem  to  have  been  written 
on  leather  or  parchment.  The  custom  of  the  Persian 
kings,  in  keeping  a  corps  of  scribes  or  royal  historio 
graphers  about  them,  whose  duty  it  was  to  write  down 
what  they  said  and  did,  has  already  been  referred  to 
and  illustrated  from  cotemporary  history.  Similar 
chronicles,  or  registers  of  State,  are  referred  to  several 
times  in  the  history  of  the  Hebrew  kings.  The  same 
custom  prevails,  to  this  day,  in  the  Ottoman  empire. 
"  The  king,"  says  Bruce,  "  has  near  his  person  an  of 
ficer,  who  is  meant  to  be  his  historiographer ;  he  is, 
also,  keeper  of  his  seal,  and  is  obliged  to  make  a  jour 
nal  of  the  king's  actions,  good  or  bad,  without  any  com 
ment  of  his  own  upon  them.  When  the  king  dies,  or 
soon  after,  this  journal  is  delivered  to  the  council,  who 
read  it  over,  and  erase  everything  false  in.  it,  while 
they  supply  every  material  fact  that  may  have  been 
omitted,  whether  purposely  or  not." 

Nor  were  the  records  of  the  Chronicles  of  the  Persian 
empire  so  dry  and  stupid  an  affair  as  many  suppose. 
There  was  not  within  his  reach  any  composition  better 
suited  to  his  perturbed  state  of  mind  than  these  records. 
They  were  instructive  and  usually  well  written,  and  in 
verse.  The  records  of  Persia  are  still  kept  in  this  way. 
Ferdusi,  who  is  regarded  as  the  Homer  of  India,  spent 
thirty  years  in  writing  his  great  poem,  which  contains 
one  hundred  and  twenty  thousand  lines.  And  as  the 
Sultan  had  promised  him  a  dinar,  perhaps  two  dollars 
and  a  half,  for  every  line,  we  are  not  surprised  at  its 
length.  This  poem  is  nothing  but  a  collection  of  the 

10A 


220  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

chronicles  of  former  poets,  brought  down  from  the  crea 
tion  to  the  reign  of  Mohammed  Gliezny^  in  the  begin 
ning  of  the  tenth  century.  This  famous  epic  poem  is 
said  to  be  written  "  in  all  the  harmony,  strength  and 
elegance  of  the  most  beautiful  and  harmonious  language 
in  the  universe.  It  flows  deep  and  strong,  like  a  river 
of  .oil  over  every  kind  of  channel." 

Nor  was  the  custom  wholly  confined  to  the  East. 
The  "  Chronicles  of  the  Cid,"  William  of  Malmesbury's 
"  Chronicles  of  the  kings  of  England,"  the  six  old 
English  Chronicles,  viz  :  Asser's  Life  of  Alfred,  and 
Chronicles  of  Eldred,  Ethelred,  Nennius,  Geoffrey  of 
Monmouth,  and  of  Richard,  and  "  the  Chronicles  of 
the  Crusaders/'  of  Robert  of  Gloucester,  and  Ossian, 
and  the  famous  Spanish  and  English  ballads,  are  a  part 
and  parcel  of  the  history  and  literature  of  our  own  day. 
"  The  poet  laureate'7  of  her  Majesty,  is  the  modern  suc 
cessor  of  these  royal  scribes — the  crown  paid  register  of 
eulogies.  Such  I  conceive  to  have  been  the  records 
read  to  Ahasuerus.  In  explaining  the  king's  wakeful- 
ness,  the  Targum  tells  us  that  the  king  first  had  a 
dream  that  night,  to  the  effect  that  he  saw  a  man,  who 
wished  to  speak  to  him,  saying,  "  Hainan  desireth  to 
slay  thee  and  to  make  himself  king  in  thy  stead.  Be 
hold  he  will  come  unto  thee  early  in  the  morning,  to 
ask  from  thee  the  man  who  rescued  thee  from  death, 
that  he  may  slay  him  ~}  but  say  thou  unto  Hainan, 
What  shall  be  done  for  the  man  whose  honor  the  king 
studieth  ?  And  thou  wilt  find  that  he  will  ask  nothing- 
less  from  thee  than  the  royal  vestments,  the  regal  crown, 
and  the  horse  on  which  the  king  is  wont  to  ride."  This 
looks  very  much  like  telling  where  a  thing  is  lost  after 


THE   USES   OF    HISTORY.  221 

it  is  found.  It  is  well  known,  however,  that  the  An 
cients  and  the  Orientals  still  are  much  given  to  dreams. 
Homer  makes  Rhesus  die  in  a  dream,  from  the  sword 
of  Diomed.  That  is,  just  as  he  was  agonized  with  such 
a  dream,  it  literally  came  to  pass. 

The  king  did  not  know  why  he  could  not  sleep,  but 
thought  the  reading  of  the  Chronicles  might  amuse  his 
mind.  There  were  many  other  sources  of  pleasure  or 
amusement  at  hand.  His  wives  and  concubines,  and 
singers  and  musicians — why  did  he  not  turn  to  some  of 
them  for  relief  ?  The  answer  is,  Providence  designed 
to  bring  before  his  mind  another  matter.  In  Hainan's 
house,  his  friends  and  his  wife  are  arranging  to  have 
Mordecai  hanged,  but  in  the  king's  palace,  God  is  dis 
posing  of  matters  for  a  very  different  result.  The  plots 
are  to  ripen,  but  the  victim  is  not  to  gratify  Hainan's 
cruel  prejudice. 

It  were  a  great  gain  to  the  intelligence  and  morals  of 
our  day,  if  more  of  the  sleepless  hours  of  young  people 
were  spent  in  reading  standard  histories,  rather  than  in 
corrupting  their  minds  and  polluting  their  imaginations 
with  the  flash  literature  or  the  sensation  poetry  and 
essays  of  the  day.  It  is  not  easy  to  overstate  the  plea 
sure  and  profit  of  history.  Perhaps  the  king  hoped  by 
having  the  records  read,  to  deceive  the  tediousness  of 
the  night,  or  that  the  pleasant  passages  would  either 
invite  slumber,  or  enable  him  to  endure  his  wakefulness 
with  greater  ease.  Zaccheus,  says  the  quaint  old 
Thomas  Fuller,  and  may  his  shadow  never  be  less,  was 
low  and  little  in  stature ;  but  when  he  had  borrowed 
some  hight  from  the  fig  tree,  the  dwarf  became  a 
giant — but  last  minute  beneath  the  arms,  now  grown 


222  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

on  a  sudden  above  the  heads  of  other  men.  Thus  our 
experimental  knowledge  is,  in  itself,  both  short  and  nar 
row.  It  cannot  exceed  the  span  of  our  own  life.  But 
when  we  are  mounted  on  the  tree  of  history,  we  can 
not  only  reach  the  year  of  Christ's  incarnation,  but  even 
touch  the  top  of  the  world's  beginning,  and  at  one 
view,  oversee  all  the  remarkable  accidents  of  former 


CHAPTER    XIV. 


THE    ROYAL    HONORING. 


"  Array  him  in  the  robe  of  honor, 
And  place  a  chain  of  gold  around  his  neck, 
And  bind  around  his  brow  the  diadem, 
And  mount  him  on  my  steed  of  state, 

And  lead  him  through  the  camp, 
And  let  the  Heralds  go  before  and 'cry 

'  Thus  shall  tlie  Sultan  reward 
The  man  who  serves  him  well !' 
Then  in  the  purple  robe 
They  vested  Thalaba, 

And  hung  around  his  neck  the  golden  chain, 
And  bound  his  forehead  with  the  diadem, 

And  on  the  royal  steed 
They  led  him  through  the  camp, 
And  Heralds  went  before  and  cried, 

'  Thus  shall  the  Sultan  reward 
The  man  who  serves  him  well!' " 

Southey's  Thalaba. 

IT  was  found,  on  reading  the  Chronicles,  which  the 
sleepless  king  had  called  for,  that  the  portion  read  told 
how  Mordecai  had  saved  the  king's  life,  but  as  there 
was  no  record  of  any  reward  or  honor  having  been  shown 
to  him  for  such  distinguished  service,  the  king  inquired 
whether  there  was  an  omission  in  the  record,  or  whether 
this  man  had  been  neglected.  And  his  servants  that 
ministered  unto  him,  said  :  "  There  is  nothing  done  for 


224  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

him."  And  the  king  said,  who  is  in  the  court?  Now 
Haman  was  come  into  the  outward  court  of  the  kingvs 
house,  to  speak  unto  the  king  to  hang  Mordecai  on  the 
gallows  that  he  had  prepared  for  him.  And  the  king's 
servants  said  unto  him,  "  behold,  Haman  standetb  in 
the  court."  Esth.  vi :  4,  5.  Though  Haman  was  a 
great  favorite,  he  could  not  enter  till  called.  There  was 
a  waiting  room  where  the  servants  and  visitors  were  to 
remain  in  readiness  to  come  in  whenever  called.  Herod, 
lib.  iii :  c.  120. 

It  is  plain  enough  why  Haman  is  so  early  this  morn 
ing  in  the  waiting  room  of  the  king.  Although  he 
knew  nothing  of  the  king's  dream  nor  want  of  sleep,  he 
is  early  in  the  outer  court,  just  as  the  Targuni  already 
cited  says  the  king's  early  night  vision  had  revealed 
to  him.  Hainan's  pride  and  revenge  would  not  let  him 
sleep.  As  soon  as  the  king  is  informed  that  Haman  is 
in  the  waiting  room,  he  says,  let  him  come  'm,and  then, 
without  giving  him  time  to  make  any  request,  puts  the 
question  direct  to  him  :  "What  shall  be  done  unto  the 
man  whom  the  king  delighteth  to  honor  ?"  At  first 
blush,  Haman  thought  this  promises  everything  I  can 
ask.  For  the  thought  in  his  heart  was,  "  To  whom  would 
the  king  delight  to  do  honor  more  than  to  myself?" 
See  also  vi:  7,  11,  inclusive. 

Here  let  us  observe,  first,  the  discovery  of  neglect 
toward  Mordecai  prepared  the  way  for  his  honor.  Be 
ing  a  Jew,  no  reward  had  been  given  him  for  his  fidel 
ity  to  the  king;  or,  through  the  envy  of  courtiers  or 
forgetfulness  of  the  king,  nothing  had  been  done  for 
such  signal  service.  But  a  record  had  been  made  of  it. 
This  was  all  ordered  by  Divine  Providence,  that  the 


HAMAN'S  ADVICE.  225 

developments  might  all  be  made  at  the  proper  time. 
And  so,  also,  secondly,  Hainan's  spleen  and  malice 
brings  him  early  to  the  court  of  the  king.  Impatient 
to  have  his  revenge,  he  intends,  this  morning,  at  the 
very  first  moment,  to  ask  the  king  to  have  Mordecai 
hanged,  and  has  everything  in  readiness.  So  politic 
was  he,  that,  though  he  had  the  power  in  his  own  hand, 
he  preferred  the  king  should,  personally,  order  the  exe 
cution.  Neither  Ha  man  nor  the  king  could  sleep. 
The  cause  of  their  wakef illness  was  different,  but  both 
are  working  together,  without  knowing  it,  for  the  same 
result.  And,  thirdly,  although  Hainan  was  exceeding 
ly  impatient  and  burning  with  rage,  he  could  not  enter 
the  royal  presence  until  called  to  come,  and  although 
the  king  knows  nothing  of  the  high  gallows  which  he 
has  had  built  for  Mordecai,  nor  anything  of  his  designs 
against  him,  yet  he  does  not  give  him  time  to  open  his 
mouth,  before  he  demands  from  him,  What  shall  be 
done  unto  the  man  whom,  the  king  delighteth  to  honor? 
And  Hainan,  believing  no  man  was  so  high  in  the 
royal  favor  as  himself,  and  that,  in  giving  advice,  he 
was  only  issuing  a  decree  to  heap  glory  on  himself, 
said :  "  For  the  man  whom  the  king  delighteth  to  honor, 
let  the  royal  apparel  be  brought  which  the  king  useth 
to  wear,  and  the  horse  that  the  king  rideth  upon,  and 
the  crown  royal  which  is  set  upon  his  head :  And  let 
this  apparel  and  horse  be  delivered  into  the  hand  of  one 
of  the  king's  most  noble  princes,  that  they  may  array 
the  man  withal  whom  the  king  delighteth  to  honor,  and 
bring  him  on  horseback  through  the  street  of  the  city, 
and  proclaim  before  him,  Thus  shall  it  be  done  to  the 
man  whom  the  king  deligliteth  to  honor.  Then  the 
10n  " 


226  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

king  said  to  Hainan,  Make  haste,  and  take  the  apparel 
and  the  horse,  as  thou  hast  said,  and  do  even  so  to 
Mordecai,  the  Jew,  that  sitteth  at  the  king's  gate  :  let 
nothing  fail  of  all  that  thou  hast  spoken.  Then  took 
Hainan  the  apparel  and  the  horse,  and  arrayed  Morde 
cai,  and  brought  him  on  horseback  through  the  street 
of  the  city,  and  proclaimed  before  him,  Thus  shall  it 
be  done  unto  the  man  whom  the  king  delighteth  to 
honor." 

Royal  honoring,  in  this  style,  was  common  in  those 
days.  Kings  had  horses  kept  especially  for  their  own 
use,  and  robes  and  apparel,  of  all  sorts,  that  no  one  else 
was  allowed  to  wear,  or,  if  bestowed  on  any  one  else, 
they  were  not  used  again  by  the  sovereign.  In  1 
Kings  i :  33,  we  find  David  making  Solomon  ride  upon 
his  mule,  as  a  token  of  the  great  honor  he  would  have 
put  upon  him.  Ancient  authors,  as  Justin,  Curtius 
and  others,  bear  testimony  to  the  use  of  such  robes  of 
purple,  interwoven  with  gold.  Scarlet  and  purple  are 
royal  colors.  Commentators  do  not  agree  as  to  the 
crown ;  whether  it  is  the  meaning  of  the  text,  that  the 
crown  royal  itself  was  placed  on  the  horse's  head, 
or  a  mere  effigy  of  the  crown ;  or  a  make-belief  of 
placing  it  on  the  horse's  head,  but  really  setting  it 
only  on  the  king's  head.  It  seems  to  me  the  meaning 
of  the  passage  is,  that  the  king's  crown  was  set  upon 
the  horse's  head.  1.  The  original  Hebrew,  as  well  as 
our  translation,  favors  this  construction.  2.  This  is, 
also,  the  Chaldee  and  the  Jewish  interpretation.  3. 
No  mention  is  made  of  the  crown  in  the  verses,  after 
the  eighth  verse ;  but  only  the  horse  and  apparel, 
which  seems  fairly  to  imply  that  the  crown  was  identi- 


THE    HORSE    CROWNED.  227 

fied  with  the  horse,  as  one  of  his  ornaments,  from  the 
moment  of  his  decoration  to  the  end  of  the  triumphal 
procession.  And,  4.  It  is  known,  from  history,  that 
such  a  custom  did  prevail  among  the  ancient  Persians 
and  Ethiopians,  and,  at  a  later  period,  in  Italy.  The 
crown  royal  was  put  on  the  head  of  the  horse  that  was 
led  in  state,  and  the  horses  attached  to  the  triumphal 
chariots  were  adorned  with  crowns,  just  as  in  our  gala 
days  our  horses  are  adorned  with  flowers,  ribbons  and 
flags.  It  is  written  that  a  Roman  consul,  once,  put  the 
insignia  of  his  office  on  his  horse's  head,  and  then  told 
the  people,  so  fickle  and  corrupt  had  they  become  at 
their  elections,  that  his  crowned  horse  was  the  best 
consul  the  Romans  had  ever  had.  Let  Americans 
profit  by  the  lesson.  When  Alexander  entered  Baby 
lon,  the  way  was  covered  with  flowers  and  branches  of 
trees,  and  his  horse  was  made  to  walk  on  roses,  sugar 
and  cloth  of  gold.  And  you  all  recollect  the  history 
of  our  Lord's  entrance  into  Jerusalem,  not  long  before 
his  crucifixion.  The  proclamation  made  before  Mor- 
decai  was  according  to  oriental  custom.  The  same  was 
done  for  Joseph  in  Egypt.  (Gen.  xli:  43.)  When 
a  Pasha  rides  through  the  streets  of  an  Eastern  city,  it 
is  the  custom,  to  this  day,  for  a  man  to  run  before, 
flourishing  a  long  whip,  to  clear  the  way  for  the  great 
man  who  cometh — sometimes  calling  out  his  name  and 
titles,  that  all  may  get  out  of  the  way,  or  fall  down  in 
humble  prostration  before  him.  And  observe,  fourth 
ly,  how  terribly  bitter  was  this  pill  to  Hainan — to  fail 
to  receive  the  honor  himself,  and  to  be  compelled  to 
bestow  it,  by  his  own  hand  and  with  his  own  lips,  upon 
the  man  whom,  of  all  others,  he  hated  with  the  nio^t 


228  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

hearty  good  will.  It  is  no  wonder  the  Targum  should 
say,  that,  when  he  received  the  king's  command  thus 
to  honor  Mordecai,  he  begged  the  king  to  kill  him, 
rather  than  degrade  him  by  compelling  him  to  render 
such  service  to  a  despised  Jew.  No  wonder  he  went 
home,  that  night,  to  his  house,  mourning  and  having 
his  head  covered — verse  12.  It  was  an  ancient  cus 
tom,  among  the  Jews  and  Persians,  and,  perhaps,  other 
nations,  also,  to  cover  the  head  in  times  of  great  sorrow 
and  mourning,  and,  also,  as  a  token  of  reverence  and 
submission.  On  the  days  of  mourning  for  the  dead, 
or  showing  affection  for  them,  one  may  see  multitudes 
in  the  grave-yards  of  Scutari,  and  other  Asiatic  cities, 
with  their  heads  covered,  engaged,  on  theis  knees,  at 
their  devotions.  Elijah  wrapped  his  head  in  his  man 
tle  at  the  mouth  of  the  cave,  as  we  read  in  1  Kings 
xix,  in  token  of  his  reverence  and  readiness  to  hear 
and  obey  the  voice  of  the  Lord.  And  so,  when  David 
fled  from  Absalom,  he  "  went  by  the  ascent  of  Mount 
Olives,  and  wept,  as  he  went  up,  and  had  his  head 
covered,  and  he  went  barefoot ;  and  all  the  people  that 
was  with  him  covered  every  man  his  head,  and  they 
went  up,  weeping  as  they  went  up.  (2  Sam.  xv:  30.) 
And  so,  also,  the  nobles  in  the  time  of  famine,  in  Jere 
miah  xiv:  3,  4,  were  confounded  and  ashamed,  and 
"  covered  their  heads." 

Here  we  have  a  foreshadowing  of  the  future.  The 
feet  of  the  gods,  as  the  proverb  says,  may  be  shod  with 
wool,  and  they  may  be  slow  as  well  as  soft  in  their 
coming  ;  but  their  coining  is  certain  and  terrible.  Mor- 
decai  is  at  last  honored.  Justice  seemed  tardy,  but 
came  at  last,  and  with  a  reward  all  the  greater,  on  ac- 


HAMAN' s  DISAPPOINTMENT.  229 

count  of  her  tardiness.  But  he  wears  his  honors 
meekly.  He  is  not  puffed  up  with  vanity  to-day,  he- 
cause  yesterday  the  streets  of  Shushan  were  ringing 
with  the  honors  the  king  had  bestowed  on  him.  And 
Mordecai  came  again  to  the  king's  gate — n,s  prompt 
and  diligent  at  his  humble  post,  as  if  no  honors  had 
been  granted  him.  But  Hainan,  poor  miserable  man, 
ready  to  plant  * 

"  Hensbane  and  aconite  on  his  mother's  grave," 

if  he  could  only  satiate  his  revenge  on  Mordecai,  has 
tens  home,  boiling  over  with  rage.  Bapidly,  however, 
is  his  cup  filling  up.  If  the  gods  in  Persia  have  been 
traveling  with  leaden  feet,  now  they  will  strike  with 
iron  hands.  If  their  mills  grind  slowly,  they  will  grind 
to  powder  at  last.  Haman  had  the  gallows  built — 
rushes  to  court  to  have  Mordecai  hanged  on  it,  is  called 
in,  considers  himself  flattered,  prescribes  for  his  own 
exaltation,  as  he  supposed.  But  alas  !  how  bitter  his 
disappointment !  How  unexpected  the  turn  of  events 
that  day  !  The  great  honor  he  had  plotted  for  himself, 
he  has  himself  been  compelled  to  bestow  upon  his  most 
abhorred  adversary,  and  then  to  go  home  under  public 
disgrace.  And  worse  still,  the  very  first  to  reproach 
him,  are  those  that  advised  him  to  pursue  this  malicious 
course  toward  Mordecai.  Ah !  this  was  the  bitterest 
part  of  his  cup.  "  And  Haman  told  Zeresh,  his  wife, 
and  all  his  friends,  everything  that  had  befallen  him.  L 
Then  said  his  wise  men  and  Zeresh,  his  wife,  unto  him, 
If  Mordecai  be  of  the  seed  of  the  Jews,  before  whom 
thou  hast  begun  to  fall,  thou  shalt  not  prevail  against 


230  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

him,  but  shalt  surely  fall  before  him."  Sage  counsel 
lors  !  Fools  !  why  did  you  not  think  of  this  sooner  ? 
Are  you  now  afraid  that  Mordecai  is  indeed  of  Abra 
ham's  seed  ?  He  has  been  much  talked  about  of  late, 
how  is  it  that  you  are  not  certain  whether  he  is  a  Jew 
or  not?  And  now  that  you  find  Hainan  in  trouble  for 
following  your  advice,  how  is  it  that  you  are  so  ready 
to  overwhelm  him  with  reproach  ?  But  on  what  ground 
do  you  conclude  that  if  Mordecai  is  of  Abraham's  seed, 
and  if  Hainan  had  once  begun  to  fall  before  him,  that 
he  must  ultimately  be  crushed  by  him?  Is  it  merely 
from  views  of  general  policy  and  the  custom  of  courts, 
that  when  once  a  new  favorite  appears,  old  ones  are 
sacrificed  ? — that  in  politics  the  rising,  and  not  the  set 
ting  sun  is  worshipped  ?  Or  is  it  because  you  are  some 
what  familiar  with  Hebrew  history  ?  Are  you  ac 
quainted  with  the  predictions  of  the  old  Hebrew  proph- 

x>  ets,  and  are  you  afraid  of  the  great  and  all-powerful 
God  whom  these  Jews  worship  ?  Have  you  read  of  the 
miracles  of  Moses  and  of  the  overthrow  of  Pharaoh,  of 
the  exploits  of  Joshua,  and  the  conquest  of  Canaan  ? 
Are  you  afraid  of  the  slaying  of  your  first  born,  or  of 
another  miracle  like  that  of  the  Red  Sea  ?  And  are 
you  searching  the  chronicles  of  the  reign  of  David,  and 
of  the  overthrow  of  Sennacherib's  mighty  host  ?  The 
history  of  Daniel  was  recent  and  must  have  been  known 
to  them. 

The  septuagint  asserts  here,  that  Hainan's  wife  said, 

4  Thou  shalt  surely  fall  before  him,  for  the  living  God 
is  with  him.  This  was  true  in  every  particular.  The 
living  God  was  with  Mordecai,  and,  on  this  account, 
Hainan  was  sure  to  fall  before  him;  but  how  did  such 


THE  DOG  AND  THE  SHADOW.        231 

a  wicked  heathen  woman  corne  to  utter  such  a  senti 
ment?  Were  the  surrounding  heathen  under  an  abid 
ing,  indefinite,  but  deep  impression  that  the  Jews 
were  a  peculiar  people,  and  that  extraordinary  Provi 
dences  attended  them?  Or  were  they  under  an  in 
stinctive  knowledge  that  Mordecai  was  a  protege  of 
Divine  Providence?  Or  rather,  did  not  the  spirit  of 
God  give  them  some  intimations  of  the  glory  that  cer 
tainly  awaited  the  seed  of  the  Jews, —  such  as  Balaam 
and  Caiphas  had  ? 

1.  In  Hainan  honoring  Mordecai,  we  have  a  remarka 
ble  verification  of  the  fable  of  the  dog  and  the  shadow. 
He  gaped  after  the  shadow  and  lost  the  substance.  Folly 
generally  rides  after  pride.  Hainan  grew  more  and  more 
insolent,  and  arrogant,  as  he  advanced  in  wealth  and 
power,  until  he  reached  the  highest  point  allowed  to 
him  by  Providence.  He  did  not  consider  that  he  who 
does  not  climb  gets  no  fall,  and  that  he  that  climbs  too 
high  is  sure,  at  last,  to  come  down  with  a  terrible  crash. 
His  temerity  is  remarkable.  Thinking,  however,  that 
he  was  ordered  to  cut  out  his  own  honor,  it  is  natural 
he  should  have  made  the  measure  large.  So  vaulting 
was  his  envy  that  he  must  have  Mordecai  swing  on  a 
gallows  fifty  cubits  high,  when  five  cubits  would  have 
answered  just  as  well,  but  then  the  ignominy  would 
only  have  been  five  cubits  high,  whereas  he  was  resolved 
it  should  be  fifty.  And  so  sharp  set  was  he  for  Jewish 
blood,  that  he  cannot  wait  for  the  general  massacre, 
but  must  break  his  fast  on  Mordecai.  But  there  is  an 
unseen  Divinity  shaping  his  destiny,  whose  plans  never 
miscarry.  The  king  calls  for  the  Chronicles,  and  God's 
hand,  on  the  margin,  points  the  reader  to  the  place 


232        THE  HEBREW- PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

where  Mordecai's  services  are  recorded,  but  not  re 
warded,  and  this  leads  at  once  to  Mordecai's  honor  and 
Hainan's  severe  mortification. 

2.  How  completely  wretched  are  the  envious  and  the 
proud.  Pride  is  the  canker-worm  of  the  soul.  It 
always  renders  us  unhappy.  As  soon  as  the  angels 
let  it  enter  their  hearts,  if  it  be  correct  that  their  sin 
began  in  pride,  they  became  wicked  and  wretched. 
Adam  sought  the  forbidden  fruit  to  satisfy  his  inordi 
nate  desires.  Solomon's  proud  heart  ceased  not  to  pur 
sue  his  pleasures  and  ambition  till  he  was  obliged  to 
confess  all  was  vanity  and  vexation.  Ahab  had  enough, 
but  his  covetousness  did  not  let  him  rest  till  he  had 
Naboth's  vineyard,  and,  with  it,  Jehovah's  curse.  Ha 
inan  was  prime  minister  of  the  greatest  empire  then  in 
the  world,  but  how  wretched,  because  this  contempti 
ble  Jew  would  not  render  him  such  homage  as  his 
proud  heart  exacted.  It  is  ever  so  with  those  who 
have  not  a  new  heart.  The  most  wealthy  and  highly 
honored  are  not  content.  There  is  something  still  want 
ing.  There  is  something  they  still  complain  about. 
They  make  themselves  miserable  when  they  ought  to 
be  happy.  Oh,  how  little  a  thing  is  earthly  grandeur ! 
How  little  a  thing  may  embitter  all  human  honor  and 
affluence!  An  Eastern  proverb  says,  a  gnat  may  run 
an  elephant  mad.  A  dead  fly  spoils  the  pot  of  oint 
ment,  says  the  Bible.  So  it  was  with  Haman.  The 
pride  of  his  heart  deceived  him.  The  fear  of  God 
>  was  not  before  his  eyes.  Always  feeding  his  vanity, 
and  his  selfishness,  his  envy  grew  to  such  a  size  that  it 
allowed  him  no  rest.  Day  and  night  it  tyrannized  over 


REAPING   AS    WE    SOW.  233 

him,  filling  his  soul  with  the  most  envenomed  resent 
ments  and  tormenting  passions.  There  can  be  no  hap 
piness  on  earth  till  there  is  self-denial  and  trust.  There 
is  no  happiness  till  we  begin  to  crucify  selfishness,  and 
to  trust  in  God  as  the  portion  of  our  souls.  Even  if  Ha 
inan  had  been  wronged,  which  was  not  the  case,  how 
much  more  Godlike  would  it  have  been  to  forgive  ? 
There  can  be  no  happiness  without  God's  favor.  For 
it  is  life,  and  His  loving  kindness  is  better  than  life ; 
but  we  cannot  love  God,  nor  enjoy  His  favor  without 
loving  our  fellow-men.  Our  Lord's  rule  is,  that  with 
what  measure  we  mete  to  others,  it  shall  be  measured 
to  us  again.  If  we  do  not  forgive  one  another  our 
trespasses,  our  Heavenly  Father  will  not  forgive  us  our 
trespasses  against  Him.  And  even  now,  in  this  life, 
in  the  course  of  Providence,  every  man's  observation 
for  a  few  years  is  sufficient  to  show  him,  that  men  gen 
erally  meet  with  those  evils  which  they  have  been  the 
means  of  inflicting  on  others.  There  is  more  justice 
in  the  world  than  is  generally  admitted.  The  world  is 
very  apt  to  treat  a  man  as  he  treats  it.  At  least,  in 
the  long  run,  he  is  sure  to  reap  what  he  has  sown. 

3.  We  see  here  how  great  a  misfortune  it  is  to  have 
friends  and  counsellors  who  are  ignorant,  wicked,  or 
evil  disposed.  There  is  a  great  deal  of  truth  in  the 
proverb,  Save  me  from  my  friends,  and  I  will  take  care 
of  my  enemies.  It  is  sad,  when  a  man's  bosom  coun 
sellor  is  not  true  and  faithful.  And  there  is  always 
danger  to  be  apprehended  when  the  advice  of  a  pro 
fessed  friend  is  pleasing  to  our  own  angry  or  revengeful 
feelings.  There  are  no  enemies  so  bad  as  those  of  our 


234  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

own  household ;  but  a  man's  worst  enemy  is  himself. 
As  long  as  he  is  true  to  himself,  neither  men,  nor  devils, 
nor  women  can  hurt  him.  How  much  of  Hainan's 
wickedness  is  justly  to  be  charged  upon  his  wife,  we 
have  no  moral  chemistry  by  which,  at  present,  to  ascer 
tain.  But,  as  in  many  other  cases,  so  here,  if  not  at 
the  bottom  of  the  business,  a  woman  is  in  it.  Lord 
Bollingbroke  is  reckoned  among  philosophers  and  great 
men,  but  one  of  the  most  sensible  things  he  ever  said 
was  this  :  "  When  I  am  making  up  a  plan  of  conse 
quence,"  said  he,  "  I  always  wish  to  consult  with  a 
sensible  woman."  Women  are  noted  for  their  wit  on 
emergencies,  but  in  this  history  it  was  more  than  Greek 
with  Greek — it  was  woman  against  woman — and,  at 
one  time,  it  looked  as  if  the  wife  of  the  Amalekite 
would  outwit  the  Queen  of  Shushan.  Both  have  been 
at  woik,  and,  to-morrow,  both  are  to  make  their  final 
demonstration.  But  she  has  the  victory  who  trust- 
eth  in  Him  that  keepeth  Israel,  for  He  neither  slum- 
bereth  nor  sleepeth.  If  Hainan's  wife  had  been  a 
meek,  quiet,  prudent,  intelligent,  God-fearing  woman, 
her  advice,  at  first,  had  been  altogether  of  a  different 
sort,  and  her  bearing  toward  her  husband,  when  he 
hastened  home  from  court,  almost  heartbroken  with 
disappointment  and  rage,  would  have  been  altogether 
different  from  what  it  was.  Instead  of  adding  fuel  to 
his  malignant  passions,  she  should  have  endeavored  to 
moderate  and  restrain  them.  And,  instead  of  bruising 
a  heart  already  broken,  by  adding  taunt  and  reproach 
to  grief,  she  should  have  sought  to  calm  him,  and 
make  him  feel  that,  with  her,  in  his  own  home,  he  was 
still  with  friends,  respected  and  beloved,  however  much 


A  WIFE'S  INFLUENCE.  235 

he  had  suffered  at  court.  It  may  be  true  of  young  men, 
as  Schiller  says,  that  they  carry  the  stars  of  their  des 
tiny  in  their  own  bosoms,  but  it  is  not  true  of  married 
men.  Wives  carry  the  stars  of  their  husbands'  desti 
nies  in  their  bosoms.  The  husband's  fortune  is  more 
fully  in  the  hands  of  his  wife  than  anywhere  else.  It 
is  for  her  to  conform  to  his  circumstances.  This  is  both 
her  respectability  and  happiness.  I  know  not  where  to 
find  sublinier  exhibitions  of  fortitude  and  virtue  than 
have  been  made  by  women  who  have  been  precipitated 
suddenly  from  affluence  to  absolute  want.  Then,  again, 
a  husband's  fortune  is  in  his  wife's  hands,  for  she,  more 
than  anybody  else,  can  help  him  to  make  it,  and  to 
take  care  of  it.  I  do  not  mean  that  she  is  to  write  his 
brief  for  the  Supreme  Court,  or  that  she  is  to  ride  in 
his  gig  to  see  his  patients  for  him,  or  that  she  is  to 
manage  his  office ;  but  I  do  mean,  that  his  health,  his 
vigor,  both  of  body  and  mind,  and  his  moral  strength, 
depend  upon  her,  and  that  it  is  only  with  these  we  have 
a  right  to  expect  him  to  succeed.  It  is  her's  to  make 
his  home  happy,  and  to  gird  him  with  strength  by 
sympathy  and  counsel.  When  his  spirits  are  almost 
overwhelmed,  she  alone,  of  all  human  beings,  is  the  one 
to  minister  to  him.  Her  nursing  is  as  sovereign  to 
his  sick  soul  as  it  is  for  his  ailing  body.  It  is  her 
gentle  tones  only  that  can  steal  over  his  morbid  senses 
with  more  power  than  David's  harp.  And  when  his 
courage  is  almost  gone,  her  patience  and  fortitude  will 
rekindle  his  heart  again  to  dare  and  do,  and  meet  anew 
the  toils  and  troubles  of  life.  When  I  think  of  Ha 
inan's  wife,  and  her  bitter  reproach  when  he  came 
home,  I  am  not  so  much  astonished  at  his  wickedness, 


236  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

as  that  he  did  not  go  further.  I  wonder,  when  she 
chided  him,  he  did  not  go  and  hang  himself  on  the 
gallows  she  had  caused  him  to  have  built  for  Mordecai. 
What  a  misfortune  it  was  that  Haman  had  not  a 
sweet  CHRISTIAN  HOME  to  retire  to  after  the  terrible 
disappointments  and  bitter  experiences  of  that  day  ! 
Yes,  a  sweet  quiet  Home.  But  you  tell  me  I  forget 
that  he  was  a  man  of  large  estates,  great  honors,  and  the 
owner  of  a  princely  palace.  True,  but  a  palace  is  not 
always  a  Home.  What  is  a  home  ?  It  is  something 
for  which  many  of  earth's  babbling  tongues  have  no 
term.  A  home  is  not  a  mere  residence  for  the  body, 
but  a  place  where  the  heart  rests  and  the  affections  nes 
tle  and  dwell  and  multiply.  A  Home  is  the  place  where 
children  romp  and  play,  and  learn  to  love,  and  where 
the  husband  and  wife  toil  smilingly  together,  as  they 
trudge  up  the  hill  on  their  way  to  a  better  world.  If 
men  are  not  happy  anywhere  else,  0  let  them  be  happy 
at  home.  Have  you  not  stood  before  the  picture,  "the 
soldier's  dream/'  until  you  could  hear  your  own  breath 
ing  ?  But  why  so  much  enraptured  with  that  picture  ? 
Is  it  not  because  you  see  the  soldier  by  his  bivouac  fire 
fast  asleep? — but  to-morrow's  drum  is  to  awake  him  to 
battle  and  to  death.  Sleep  on,  then,  happy  dreamer. 
See  in  the  visions  of  that  heart  of  hearts,  that  can  meet 
death  at  the  cannon's  mouth,  your  sweet  "  wee  ones" 
and  loving  wife,  with  streaming  hair  and  outstretched 
arms,  welcoming  you  back  from  the  wars.  Yes,  it  is  of 
Home  the  tented  or  the  dying  soldier  thinks.  And  it 
is  of  Home  the  sailor  thinks,  on  his  lonely  watch,  far 
away  on  stormy  seas.  And  the  traveler,  amid  the 
feathery  palm  trees,  and  while  gazing  on  the  birds  of 


"HOME,  SWEET  HOME."  237 

bright  plumage  and  gorgeous  flowers,  why  does  he  seeni 
to  be  staring  on  vacancy  ?  "  His  heart  is  far  away." 
Seas  and  lands  and  mountains,  are  all  past  in  a  moment, 
and  he  hears  not  the  birds  on  starry  wings  that  warble 
their  Asiatic  notes  for  him,  but  the  lark  that  used  to 
sing  above  his  father's  fields  j  and  again  he  sees  his  fair- 
haired  brother  with  a  light  foot  chasing  the  butterfly 
by  the  spring  branch,  or  the  sweet  sister  that  left  them 
all  to  go  and  sing  in  the  choir  of  the  angels.  Home  ! 
none  but  the  weary  and  the  worn,  the  traveled  and  the 
soiled  of  earth  can  know  what  it  is.  And  our  Home 
in  heaven,  the  new  Jerusalem — shall  we  not  long  for  it, 
as  birds  about  to  migrate  to  those  sunny  lands  where 
there  is  no  more  winter,  u  nor  any  more  sorrow,  nor  any 
pain,  nor  any  dying  ?"  Just  in  the  proportion  that  a 
good  woman  is  a  blessing,  in  the  same  proportion  is  a 
bad  woman  a  curse.  Woman's  mission  is  a  high  and 
grand  one.  She  is  connected  with  everything  that  be 
longs  to  our  race  that  is  noble,  refining  and  hopeful. 

Great  is  the  calamity,  then,  for  a  community  to  be 
under  the  influence  of  such  opinions  or  sentiments  as 
are  degrading  to  its  women.  One  bad  woman  can  do 
more  harm  in  society  than  a  dozen  of  bad  men.  An 
ambitious,  ungodly  woman  as  a  wife,  or  a  mother,  or  a 
member  of  society,  is  a  poisonous  Upas,  whose  deadly 
influences  are  continually  exuding  and  permeating  the 
surrounding  atmosphere.  As  she  is  man's  best  helper 
in  meeting  the  cares  of  life,  and  making  his  way  up 
ward  to  G  od  and  heaven,  so  when  she  is  herself  without 
the  fear  of  God,  she  is  his  most  dangerous  companion, 
and  will  utterly  destroy  his  soul  and  body,  and  cast 
him  down  to  perdition  sooner,  I  had  almost  said,  than 


238  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

the  devil  himself  could  do  it.  It  is  difficult — indeed  I 
do  not  know  that  it  is  possible — to  overstate  the  impor 
tance  of  female  influence  in  our  country.  As  long  as 
our  sisters,  mothers  and  wives  are  pure,  patriotic  and 
pious,  so  long  our  Institutions  are  imperishable.  As 
long  as  a  husband  has  a  wife,  or  a  son  has  a  mother  to 
pray  for  him,  so  long  there  is  hope  of  him.  The  hus 
band  or  the  son  may  be  engrossed  in  the  pursuit  of 
wealth,  or  of  pleasure,  or  of  fame,  but  as  long  as  his 
name  is  daily  breathed  up  to  the  ear  of  God  by  a  pious 
wife  or  mother,  so  long  is  there  a  golden  chain  still 
holding  his  soul  to  the  anchor  of  hope.  It  may  often 
seem  to  be  ready  to  break,  yet  the  chances  are  that  at 
last  he  will  be  saved.  "  They  that  rock  the  cradle, 
govern  the  world." 


CHAPTER  XV. 


HAMAN  S   FALL   AND    DEATH. 


"Then  the  king  said,  Hang  him  thereon." 

Esther  Vli.  9. 

"  The  vengeance-hour  is  come, 
He  tarried  not — he  past 
The  threshold,  over  which  was  no  return." 

Southey's  Thalaba. 

IT  appears  that  Hainan  was  not  in  so  great  a  haste 
to  go  to  the  second  banquet  as  he  had  been  to  attend 
the  first.  For  while  he  was  yet  talking  with  his  wife 
and  friends,  about  the  mortification  he  had  received, 
and  his  probable  downfall  before  Mordecai,  the  king's 
chamberlains  came  and  hastened  to  bring  him  unto  the 
banquet  that  Esther  had  prepared.  It  is  not  hard  to 
divine  the  reason  of  his  tardiness.  He  had  prepared 
himself  for  another  feast,  of  a  very  different  kind.  He 
had  more  appetite  for  Jewish  blood  than  for  the  queen's 
wine.  Perhaps,  indeed,  he  had  some  forebodings  of 
his  doom.  Wicked  men,  even  professed  skeptics,  are 
exceedingly  prone  to  omens,  and  all  kinds  of  supersti 
tion.  The  Orientals  are  great  believers  in  the  evil  eye, 
and  in  signs  and  lucky  days,  and  lucky  faces,  and  lucky 


240  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

persons.  Among  them  an  individual,  thought  to  be  an 
unlucky  person,  is  shunned.  They  do  not  wish  him  to 
travel  with  them,  nor  to  do  any  business  for  them.  We 
have  seen  Hainan  "with  fuller  reach  and  stronger 
swell,  wave  after  wave  advancing/7  until  he  seemed  to 
have  secured  his  purpose,  the  utter  destruction  of  the 
Hebrew  race.  But  he  has  gone  the  full  length  of  his 
tether.  He  is  now  brought  to  his  last  feast.  Here 
his  life  is  to  pay  the  reckoning.  To  him  this  wine 
banquet  is  to  be  like  Mohammed  Ali's  to  the  Mame 
lukes — "  The  feast  of  death." 

But  let  us  go  with  the  king  and  Hainan  to  the  sec 
ond  wine  banquet  of  the  peerless  queen  of  Shushan. 
At  the  banquet  the  king  said  to  Esther,  "  What  is  thy 
petition  queen  Esther  ?  and  it  shall  be  granted  thee> 
even  to  the  half  of  the  kingdom.  Then  Esther,  the 
queen,  answered  and  said,  If  I  have  found  favor  in  thy 
sight,  0  king,  and  if  it  please  the  king,  let  my  life  be 
given  me  at  my  petition,  and  my  people  at  my  request." 
Esther  vii :  3.  As  if  she  had  said,  save  me,  and  the 
lives  of  my  people,  from  the  malice  of  our  enemy.  We 
are  sold  to  destruction.  We  are  delivered  to  be  de 
stroyed,  and  to  be  killed,  and  to  utterly  perish,  by  the 
very  man  that  offered  so  large  a  sum  for  the  destruction 
of  the  Jews.  And  had  it  been  a  calamity  in  anywise 
short  of  the  extinction  of  the  people  from  whom  I  am 
descended,  I  would  have  kept  silent.  But  it  is  their 
utter  annihilation  that  is  decreed.  And  the  ten  thou 
sand  talents  promised,  if  paid  into  the  king's  treasury, 
will  not  countervail  the  king's  damage — will  not  repair 
his  loss  of  tribute  from  the  Jews  within  his  dominions. 

"  Then  the  king  answered,  and  said  unto 'the  queen, 


EVIL   AGAINST    HAMAN.  241 

Who  is  he,  and  ivhere  is  he,  that  durst  presume  in  his 
heart — that  is,  whose  heart  hath  filled  him  to  do  so — to 
do  such  a  cruel  thing,  and  by  it  deprive  me  also  of  my 
revenue,  and  of  my  queen  ? 

And  Esther  said,  The  adversary  and  enemy  of  the 
king,  and  of  me,  is  this  wicked  Haman.  "  Then  Hainan 
was  afraid  before  the  king  and  the  queen.  And  the 
king,  arising  from  the  banquet  of  wine  in  his  wrath, 
went  into  the  palace  garden :  and  Haman  stood  up  to 
make  request  for  his  life  to  Esther  the  queen ;  for  he 
saw  that  there  was  evil  determined  against  him  by  the 
king."  It  was  a  well-known  custom,  that  if  the  king 
left  a  feast  displeased  with  any  one,  and  retired  to  the 
women's  apartment,  that  there  was  no  hope,  and  that 
when  the  king  ordered  an  execution  no  one  was  per 
mitted  even  to  ask  for  mercy.*  By  rising  in  anger,  there 
fore,  it  was  the  same  as  if  sentence  of  death  had  been 
pronounced.  Rosenmuller  gives  an  instance  from  Olea- 
rius  to  this  effect.  Shah  Sefi,  of  Persia,  once  felt  him 
self  offended  by  some  unseasonable  jokes  that  one  of  his 
favorites  allowed  himself  to  indulge  in,  accordingly  he 
at  once  arose  and  left  the  apartment,  by  which  the 
favorite  knew  his  life  was  forfeited.  He  went  home  in 
alarm,  and  in  a  few  hours  the  king  sent  for  his  head. 
Another  instance  is  given  in  the  books  of  a  high  officer 
having  displeased  the  Sultan,  who  immediately  ordered 
his  head  to  be  placed  on  the  top  of  a  pyramid  of  fruit 
that  had  just  been  brought  into  his  court.  Persian 


*  En  Perse,  lorsque  le  roi  a  condamne  quelqu'un,  on  ne  pent  plus  lui  eu 
parlet  ni  demander  grace.  S'il  etait  ivre  on  hors  de  sens,  il  faudrait  que 
1'arret  s'executal  tout  do  memo ;  sans  ccla  il  se  contredirait,  el  la  loi  a* 
peut  se  contredire, — Montesquieu  L'Esprit.  DCS  Lois  Liv.  iii :  C.  8. 

11 


242  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

and  Egyptian  kings  affected  so  much  majesty  that  they 
did  not  allow  a  malefactor,  or  any  one  sentenced  to 
death,  to  look  at  them.  Hence  they  covered  Hainan's 
face  when  the  king's  displeasure  was  manifested — 
"  putting  him  in  a  winding  sheet  that  was  dead  in  the 
king's  favor."  When  a  criminal  was  condemned  by  a 
Roman  judge,  he  was  delivered  to  the  executioner  in 
these  words  :  "  I,  Victor,  caput  obnubito  arbori  infelici 
suspendito."  Go,  Seargent,  cover  his  head,  and  hang 
him  on  the  unlucky  tree.  Perhaps,  indeed,  they  cov 
ered  his  face  partly  also  because  the  king  was  in  such 
a  rage  that  they  wished  to  hide  from  him  an  object  that 
was  so  displeasing  to  him.  In  addition  to  the  places 
cited  in  the  previous  chapter,  where  the  covering  of 
the  head  was  significant  of  reverence,  distress  and  sub 
mission,  we  find  other  Scriptures  that  speak  of  the  cov 
ering  of  the  head  as  expressive  of  the  hatefulness  of 
the  person — as  of  one  condemned,  and  his  fate  un 
changeably  fixed.  See  Job  ix  :  24;  Isa.  xxii :  17. 

The  original  for  "  who  is  he,  and  where  is  he,"  is 
peculiarly  emphatic .  Who  ? — He  —  77m  one  ?  An  d 
where?  This  one? — lie?  Modes  of  expression  that 
show  the  great  excitement  of  the  king — as  if  his  mind 
wras  at  once  filled  with  the  idea  of  a  terrible  conspiracy, 
and  as  if  he  expected  armed  men  to  leap  out  of  the 
divans  and  hanging  curtains,  and  from  the  silk  festoons, 
and  take  his  life.  Under  the  circumstances,  and  con 
sidering  that  he  was  an  Oriental  despot,  he  shows  con 
siderable  forbearance  in  leaving  the  banquet,  and  going 
into  the  palace  garden — out  of  sight  of  the  infamous 
wretch — to  cool  his  anger,  and  consider  the  extent  and 
1  bearing  of  the  mischief  intended.  He  may  have  felt 


HAMAN    INTERCEDING.  243 

that  lie  was  in  danger  of  doing  something  rash,  if  he 
did  not  leave  Hainan  and  reflect.  We  can  hardly 
suppose  him  lost  to  all  shame.  -He  was  still  jealous  of 
his  reputation  as  king  of  so  great  an  empire. 

The  led,  of  the  eighth  verse,  was  not  such  as  was 
used  to  sleep  in,  but  the  divan  used  at  banquets.  The 
king,  no  doubt,  in  his  rage,  either  misconceives,  or 
affects  to  misconceive,  the  action  of  Haman,  as  if  he 
desired  to  have  some  more  palpable  cause  for  his  im 
mediate  death.  He  seems  to  say,  for  the  information 
of  others,  "This  wretched  man  has  not  only  attempted  to 
take  the  queen's  life,  but  now,  behold,  he  will  force  the 
queen  also  before  me  in  the  house."  Whether  he 
really  believed  this  or  not,  he  was  quite  willing  to  have 
the  worst  possible  construction  put  upon  his  conduct. 
The  moment  the  king  went  out  into  the  garden,  Ha 
man  knew  there  was  no  hope,  unless  he  could  prevail 
upon  the  queen  to  intercede  for  him;  and  as  he  knew 
she  had  already,  at  the  peril  of  her  life,  approached 
the  king,  he  may  have  had  a  faint  hope  that  he  could 
convince  her  that  he  did  not  know  that  she  was  a  Jew 
ess,  and  that  he  was  able,  and  would  prevent  the  exe 
cution  of  the  decree  for  her  sake.  But  it  was  in  vain. 
The  king  has  determined  evil  against  him,  and  nothing 
but  evil. 

In  the  queen's  address  to  the  king  there  is  great 
tact  and  power.  She  begins  by  saying  :  Let  my  life  be 
given  rue  at  my  petition.  As  if,  at  once,  she  sought  to 
arouse  the  king's  feelings,  and  awaken  in  his  mind  the 
inquiry,  Is  her  life  in  danger  ? — a  life  so  dear  to  me  ! 
And,  if  so,  is  not  my  own  life  in  danger,  also  ?  And 
then  she  adds — and  the  life  of  my  people  at  my  request. 

llA 


244  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

It  is  after  the  king  is  bound  by  the  threefold  cord  of  a 
promise  thrice  made,  that  the  queen  astonishes  him 
with  her  request.  It  was  not  for  half  of  his  kingdom, 
nor  for  wealth  nor  honor  for  herself  nor  for  her  friends, 
but  for  life — her  own  life.  When  the  moment  came 
for  her  petition,  she  says :  If,  indeed,  oh  king,  thou 
hast  any  affection  for  your  adoring  queen,  now  is  the 
time  to  show  it,  for  my  life  is  now  at  stake,  and  a 
whole  nation,  dear  to  me,  also.  Her  address  is  well- 
timed.  Perhaps  there  is  no  superior  piece  of  natural 
eloquence,  unless  it  may  be  Judah's  address  to  Joseph 
for  Benjamin.  In  referring  to  the  price  for  which  she 
and  her  people  were  sold,  she  touches  the  tender  part 
of  the  king — if  there  is  any  such  spot  in  the  heart  of 
the  master  of  an  oriental  harem.  She  intimates  he 
has  been  deceived  and  overreached.  Hainan  had  ob- 

s  tained  the  decree,  under  false  pretences,  for  his  own 
advantage  and  personal  revenge,  and  to  the  manifest 
detriment  of  the  public  treasury.  It  were  easy  to  see 
that  such  an  address  would  have  a  powerful  effect  on 
the  king's  mind.  What  he  imagined  was  a  great  deal 
worse  than  what  she  really  said.  Amazed,  he  cries 
out,  Is  it  possible  there  are  conspirators  in  the  harem  ? 
— that  my  adored  queen  is  to  be  murdered  ?  "  Who 
is  he  and  where  is  he  ?"  And  then  the  queen,  nothing 

-  daunted,  fixing  her  eyes,  flashing  with  fire,  on  the 
Amalekite,  she  says  :  "  The  adversary  and  enemy,  my 
Lord,  oh  king,  is  this  wicked  Hainan.  I  would  'not 
make  the  charge  behind  his  back,  but  here  before  his 
face.  For  this  purpose,  I  invited  him  to  come  with 
you  to  my  banquet.  Let  him  speak.  Let  him  deny  it, 
if  he  can.  I  am  prepared  with  all  the  proof.  He  has 


HAMAN    CONFOUNDED.  245 

thus  sought  to  have  me  and  all  the  people  put  to  death, 
and  to  make  the  king  himself  a  partaker  in  his  awful 
deeds. "  The  queen's  petition  was  somewhat  slow  in 
coming,  but  her  words  struck  home  with  a  killing  effect 
when  they  did  come.  The  king's  servants  and  his 
own  had  often  lied  to  Haman,  calling  him  great,  noble,  t 
magnanimous,  virtuous  and  sublime;  but  the  queen 
makes  him  hear,  perhaps  for  the  first  time  in  his  life, 
his  true  title — this  ivicked  Hainan.  No  wonder  he 
stood  confounded — without  sense  or  motion — his  limbs 
refusing  to  do  their  office — his  lips  trembling  with  fear 
and  his  tongue  faltering,  and  only  sufficiently  recovered 
to  be  able  to  begin  to  speak,  as  the  king  comes  back 
from  the  garden.  His  condition  is  now,  in  every  point 
of  view,  most  alarming.  The  queen  is  his  accuser — 
the  king  is  his  judge — the  murderous  decree  is  in  evi 
dence  against  him.  His  own  hands — the  much-coveted 

o 

signet  ring — his  deeds  and  words — the  details  of  his 
interviews  with  the  king — the  quarrel  with  Mordecai, 
and  his  hot  haste  to  have  him  hanged,  and  his  own 
conscience,  are  all  in  evidence  against  him.  Nor  did 
the  king's  retirement  into  the  garden  lessen  his  resent 
ment.  He  is  ashamed  to  ask  advice  of  his  wise  men, 
the  seven  great  counsellors  of  State,  about  undoing  what 
he  had  so  rashly,  so  thoughtlessly  done.  He  is  sorely 
vexed  at  himself  for  having  been  so  rash — for  allowing 
himself  to  have  been  overreached  by  Haman — and  '- 
vexed  at  Haman  for  his  avarice,  pride,  ingratitude  and 
treason  j  yet  he  would  not  trust  himself  to  say  a  word 
till  he  had  had  time  for  sober  second  thoughts.  A 
woman's  first  thoughts  are  generally  the  best,  but  it  is 
not  usually  so  with  men — never  is  it  so  with  men  hot  in 


246  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

anger.  And,  now,  as  the  last  link  in  the  chain,  Har- 
bonah,  one  of  the  chamberlains,  and,  possibly,  one  of 
Hainan's  creatures,  says  to  the  king :  "  Behold,  also, 
the  gallows,  fifty  cubits  high,  which  Ham  an  had  made 
for  Mordecai,  who  had  spoken  good  for  the  king,  stand- 
eth  in  the  house  of  Hainan.''  It  is  enough.  "  Then 
said  the  king,  Hang  him  thereon." 

1.  Oh,  how  great  are  the  vicissitudes  of  life!    When 
Haman  thought  himsolf  secure,  then  he  was  nearest  to 
his  ruin.     In  the  fullness  of  his  fancied  strength,  he 
was  cast  into  the  net  by  his  own  feet.     What  a  variety 
of  feelings,  emotions,  fears  and  hopes  possess  the  bosoms 
of  men  and  women,  at  the  same  time  and  in  the  same 
place  !    At  the  wine  banquets  Esther  is  anxious  and 
hopeful.     She  has  a  great  matter  on  hand.     Haman  is 
agitated  and  feverish,  and,  at  the  second  banquet,  par 
ticularly  out  of  humor,  but  he  must  go  with  the  king. 
The  king  goes  to  the  banquet  in  high  glee,  but  flies 
from  the  feast,  in  a  rage,  to  the  gardens,  whither  he 
usually  went  for  pleasure;  but,  now,  to  recover  some 
self-command.     The  end  of  this  feast  was  very  different 
from  the  beginning.     It  began  with  wine  and  ended 
in  a  bloody  tragedy,  as  many  other  feasts  have  done 
since. 

2.  How  sudden    and  astonishing  the    change  that 
takes  place  in  the  feelings  of  those  about  the  court. 
Yesterday,  everybody  envied  Haman  for  his  prosperity, 
but  hated   him    for   his  insolence.      Yesterday,   they 
bowed  the  knee,  and   did  him  homage,  but  now  that 
they  see  he  has  fallen,  they  are  just  as  hearty  in  their 
rejoicings  at  his  downfall.     As  soon  as  they  see  that 


THE  DESCENT  HASTENED.          247 


evil  is  determined  against  him,  they  all  vie  in  readiness 
to  act  as  agents  of  his  destruction. 


In  the  hour 


Of  man's  adversity,  all  things  grow  daring 
Against  the  falling. " 

Turba  odit  damnatos  is  a  true  proverb.  If  Haman 
be  going  down,  they  all  cry,  "  down  with  him."  And 
as  Mordecai  is  now  the  favorite,  all  are  ready  to  exalt 
him.  The  old  Louis  dead  in  Versailles,  may  rot  or  bury 
himself,  while  the  courtiers  and  countesses  are  making 
fair  weather  with  the  rising  sun.  Raman's  sentence  is 
severe,  but  speedily  executed,  which  was  according  to 
Persian  custom,  as  Xenophon  tells  us. 

3.  Haman  pleading  at  Esther's  feet,  is  a  proof  that 
"  the  heathen  are  sent  down  in  the  pit  that  they  made  : 
in  the  net  which  they  hid  is  their  own  foot  taken.    The 
Lord  is  known  by  the  judgment  which  he  executeth  : 
the  wicked  is  snared  in  the  work  of  his  own  hand.     The 
wicked  shall  be  turned  into  hell,  and  all  the  nations 
that  forget  God."     See  Ps.  ix  :  15,  17;  vii:  15.  Prov. 
xi:  8;  xxi :  18.     And  while  Haman  receives  the  re 
ward  of  his  own  doings,  the  faithfulness  of  God  is  seen 
in  his  mercies  to  his  people.     As  the  Lord  had  been 
with  Joseph  in  Egypt,  with  Daniel  in  Babylon,  so  was 
He  with  Mordecai  and  Esther  in  Persia.     The  remnant 
of  Jacob  shall  be  as  the  dew.     The  Jews'  enemy,  and 
the  adversary  of  the  Hebrew  orphan,  a  suppliant  at  the 
queen's  feet,  illustrates  how  God  regarded  the  low  estate 
of  his  handmaiden,  and  scattered  the  proud  in  their 
imagination. 

4.  Another  lesson  learned  from  Raman's  gallows, 


248  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

perhaps,  hotter  than  from  any  other  stand-point  of  this 
history,  is  to  beware  of  the  first  risings  of  evil  passions. 

"  For  there  is  nothing  in  the  earth  so  small  that  it  may  not 

produce  great  things, 
And  no  swerving  from  a  right  line,  that  may  not  lead  eternally 

astray." 

The  personal  slight  as  he  considered  it,  from  which  we 
date  the  rising  of  Hainan's  envy,  was  only  the  key  that 
opened  the  gate  of  a  sweeping  flood  of  old  hatred,  the 
prejudice  of  race  and  an  animosity  descended  from  the 
sires  of  many  generations.  But  it  was  the  spark  that  set 
on  fire  his  treasured  up  vengeance,  a  vengeance  that  had 
been  so  long  treasured  up  and  added  to,  tfiat  in  the 
explosion  it  overshot  itself.  For  in  trying  to  wreak  it 
on  all  the  Jews,  he  lost  his  revenge  on  Mordecai,  and 
paid  the  forfeit  with  his  own  neck. 

5.  We  see  again  that  human  prosperity  is  wholly 
unavailing  in  the  hour  of  calamity.  The  glory  of  Ha 
inan  yesterday  only  enhances  his  disgrace  to-day.  As 
mere  wordly  prosperity  does  not  contain,  in  itself,  the 
true  principles  of  human  happiness,  so  it  does  not  pro 
duce  in  the  human  heart  the  means  of  enduring  adver 
sity.  It  enfeebles  rather  than  strengthens  the  mind. 
It  foments  desires  and  raises  expectations  not  proper, 
and  then  fails  to  satisfy  them.  It  fosters  a  false  deli 
cacy  that  sickens  in  the  midst  of  indulgence,  and  by 
gratifying  our  sickly  appetites,  blunts  our  desires  for 
what  is  healthful.  And  thus  the  story  of  the  sybarite, 
whose  rest  was  disturbed  by  the  rose  leaf  doubled  on  his 
couch,  is  realized.  The  real  cause  of  Haman's  wretch 
edness  was  not  in  the  stiffness  of  Mordecai's  knees,  but 


CAUSE  OP  HAM  AN 'S  FALL.          249 

in  his  own  heart  and  mind,  that  were  distempered  by 
his  prosperity  and  alienation  from  the  truth.  And 
should  not  this  reflection  make  us  moderate  in  our  de 
sires  for  wealth,  and  in  our  pursuit  of  earthly  pleasures  ? 
They  are  not  soul  satisfying  while  we  have  them,  and 
besides  corrupting  the  mind  when  abused,  they  enfeeble 
it,  and  engender  internal  misery.  They  that  will  be 
rich  pierce  themselves  through  with  many  sorrows. 
Riches  lead  us  among  precipices.  At  the  very  moment 
Haman  thought  himself  nearest  the  accomplishment  of 
his  fell  designs,  that  moment  a  righteous  providence 
was  digging  the  pit  for  his  fall.  It  was  his  own  hand 
that  plucked  the  thunderbolt  on  his  own  head.  His 
prosperity  ruined  him — it  wove  around  his  head  the 
web  of  destruction.  It  is  true 

"  He  had  been  ill  brought  up  and  was  born  bilious ;" 

He  was  sprung  from  an  accursed  family,  but  there  was 
no  fatality  that  doomed  him  personally  to  so  terrible  a 
destiny.  It  was  his  bad  or  neglected  education,  and  the 
influence  of  his  wicked  wife,  that  brought  out  his  own 
depravity  and  crowned  it  with  so  fearful  a  catastrophe. 
His  success,  for  along  time, but  inflamed  his  pride,  and 
his  pride  increased  his  envy,  and  his  envy  swelled  his 
revenge,  until  he  was  resolved  to  have  the  blood  of  the 
whole  race  to  which  Mordecai  belonged.  But  his  plans 
all  miscarried.  He  failed  and  lost  his  own  life. 

6.  It  is  then  an  unfair,  limited,  and  partial  view  of 
Providence  to  say  that  GOD'S  favors  are  not  wisely  and 
equitably  distributed  among  men.  Jacob's  complainings 
on  the  supposed  death  of  Joseph,  and  the  hard  neces- 

llB 


250  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

sity  that  required  Benjamin  to  go  down  to  Egypt,  were 
all  wrong.  The  very  things  that  he  said,  in  the  agony 
of  his  heart,  were  all  lt  against  him/'  on  the  contrary, 
were  all  working  together  for  his  good.  As  in  the 
raging  tempest,  every  drop  of  the  waves  is  as  obedient 
to  the  laws  of  nature,  as  are  the  water  drops  of  the  spring 
branch,  that  babbled  away  its  sparkling  streamlets  in 
the  sun  the  long  summer  day  at  the  foot  of  the  hill,  or 
by  the  door  of  the  home  of  our  early  youth;  so  all 
things  in  earth  and  in  hell  in  tfreir  wildest  excesses,  as 
well  as  in  their  calmest  flows,  are  subservient  to  God's 
will.  There  is  no  event  beyond  his  Almighty  power. 
All  times,  and  all  the  passages  of  life  are  full  of  melody, 
if  we  only  believe;  if  we  would  only  hear  of  them  with 
love  in  our  hearts  to  God,  and  with  filial  trust  in  Him, 
and  with  good  will  toward  our  fellow  men.  "The  Lord 
God  is  a  sun  and  a  shield ;  Pie  giveth  grace  and  glory, 
and  no  good  thing  doth  He  withhold  from  them  that 
love  Him." 

The  purposes  of  God  are  not  to  be  judged  of  by  the 
events  of  a  moment,  nor  by  the  occurrences  that  are 
near  together.  The  chain  of  Providence  has  many 
jinks,  some  are  so  high,  and  some  are  so  far  away,  that 
at  present  we  cannot  see  them,  nor  can  we  judge  cor 
rectly  of  it  till  we  see  the  whole  chain  together.  Some 
times  God  seems  to  look  one  way  and  work  another, 
and  to  bring  about  his  own  ends  by  unlikely  means. 
Thus  we  may  say,  with  reverence,  it  was  his  purpose  to 
raise  up  the  needful  deliverer  for  his  people,  at  the  time 
of  their  great  extremity.  To  accomplish  this,  and  yet 
leave  his  agents  free,  He  casts  around  and  fetches 
instruments  together,  that  in  the  ordinary  course  of 


APPEARANCES    DECEITFUL.  251 

things  would  never  have  met.  Vashti  is  to  be  de 
throned.  The  seraglio  is  to  be  filled  with  Persia's  fairest 
damsels.  Esther  is  only  to  please  the  king.  Mordecai 
is  to  displease  Hainan,  and  Haman  is  to  be  disgraced, 
and  Mordecai  is  to  become  Grand  Vizier  in  his  place, 
and  the  Hebrews  are  to  be  saved.  And  all  this  is  done 
without  a  single  failure.  Every  thing  comes  out  just 
right  at  the  right  time,  and  every  agent  works  all  the 
time  as  if  the  gratification  of  his  or  her  own  purpose 
was  the  only,  and  the  ultimate  end  in  view.  The  ex 
ternal  appearances  of  Mordecai  and  Haman,  at  the  open 
ing  of  the  history,  are  by  no  means  equal,  nor  were 
they  a  true  index  to  the  happiness  of  the  one,  or  the 
misery  of  the  other,  even  the  very  day  before  Hainan's 
fall.  All  Persia  was  envious  of  Hainan,  when  he  was 
the  most  thoroughly  wretched  man  in  the  empire.  His 
honors  and  riches  availed  him  nothing,  so  long  as  Mor 
decai  sat  at  the  king's  gate.  I  know  not  where  to  find 
a  confession  more  humiliating  and  expressive  of  deeper 
wretchedness  than  this.  It  was  an  internal  fury  that 
consumed  him.  Opulence  and  pleasure  could  not  tame 
his  envy  into  submission.  The  sad  tale  of  grief  or  be 
reavement,  or  of  losses  and  persecution,  may  grow  light 
by  being  poured  into  the  listening  ear  of  sympathy  or 
of  friendship,  but  where  is  a  man  to  find  relief  from  a 
bad  disposition  ?  It  must  have  been  an  astonishing  de 
cree  of  torment  that  made  Haman  break  through  all 
reserve,  and  confess  that  the  envy  of  his  own  heart 
made  him  completely  wretched,  amid  such  honors  and 
wealth  as  should  have  made  him  perfectly  happy.  His 
domestic  council  to  whom  he  laid  open  the  cause  of  his 
misery  must  have  been  greatly  astonished,  and  by  such  a 


252        THE  HEBREW- PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

confession  he  must  have  sunk  very  low  in  their  estima 
tion.  Ah,  it  were  better  to  have  all  the  evils  of  poverty 
or  distress  heaped  upon  us,  than  to  have  the  heart  stung 
forever  by  the  darts  of  envy.  When  suffering  from 
affliction  in  our  own  person,  or  in  our  families,  or  from 
the  loss  of  friends  or  property,  the  mind  can  exert  itself 
and  suggest  relief,  and  the  mind  properly  speaking  is 
the  man  himself.  But  when  the  cause  of  our  suffering 
is  the  disorder  of  the  mind  itself — the  outbreak  of  pas 
sion,  or  the  gnawing  and  ever  consuming  worm  of  envy, 
within  the  very  heart — then  the  last  resource  is  at 
tacked,  and  the  very  powers  of  thought  which  are  for 
our  relief  are  converted  into  instruments  of  torture. 
^The  envious  man  is  a  caudle  burning  out  at  both  ends; 
melting  away  from  the  heated  stick  at  the  lower  end, 
and  consuming  by  the  flaming  wick  at  the  other.  Envy, 
as  the  Roman  said,  has  no  feast  days.  It  enjoys  noth 
ing;  even  its  own  advantages  are  tormented  with  what 
others  possess.  "Invidia  festos  dies  non  agit." 

7.  You  must  learn,  my  young  friends,  to  discriminate 
between  real  and  apparent  happiness.  Human  nature 
is  a  poor  weak  thing,  and  is  the  same  in  all  ages  and 
countries.  All  Persia  supposed  Haman  happy,  and 
envied  his  honors;  but  you  see  how  miserable  he  was — 
"  Even  all  this  availeth  me  nothing,  so  long  as  I  see 
Mordecai  the  Jew,  sitting  at  the  king's  gate/'  The 
wicked  are  not  so  happy  after  all  in  their  boasted 
prosperity.  "To  the  wicked  there  is  no  peace.  They 
are  like  the  troubled  sea  when  it  cannot  rest.  They 
travel  with  pain  all  their  days.  Trouble  and  anguish 
prevail  against  him.  Terrors  make  them  afraid  on 


THE  RIGHTEOUS  AND  THE  WICKED.     253 

every  side.  A  dreadful  sound  is  in  their  ears;  and 
they  are  in  great  fear  when  no  fear  is.  I  have  seen 
the  wicked  in  great  power,  and  spreading  himself  like 
a  green-bay  tree.  Yet  he  passed  away,  and  lo,  he  was 
not :  yea,  I  sought  him,  and  he  could  not  be  found. 
Mark  the  perfect  man,  and  behold  the  upright,  for  the 
end  of  that  man  is  peace.  But  the  transgressors  shall 
be  destroyed  together;  the  end  of  the  wicked  shall  be 
cut  off.  But  the  salvation  of  the  righteous  is  of  the 
LORD  :  He  is  their  strength  in  the  time  of  trouble. 
And  the  LORD  shall  help  them,  and  deliver  them :  He 
shall  deliver  them  from  the  wicked,  and  save  them,  be 
cause  they  trust  in  Him." 

In  your  setting  out  in  life,  or  in  your  beginning  bu 
siness,  and  establishing  a  character  in  a  new  place, 
commit  your  ways  to  the  Lord,  and  He  will  guide  you. 
With  dependence  upon  Him,  and  trust  in  His  fatherly 
goodness,  you  carry  your  fortune  in  your  own  hands, 
and  your  happiness  in  your  own  heart.  The  destruc 
tion  of  your  purity  of  character  is  the  destruction  of 
your  peace.  Keep  your  heart,  with  all  diligence — 
govern  your  thoughts  and  desires — for  out  of  it  are 
the  issues  of  life.  And  in  all  your  sorrows  and  disap 
pointments — in  the  city  full,  or  desert  waste ;  on  the 
wild  rolling  waves,  or  lonely  mountain  hights,  remem 
ber  that,  "  Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  children,  so  the 
Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear  Him.  For  He  knoweth 
our  frame :  He  reniembereth  that  we  are  dust.  Call 
upon  me,"  saith  God,  "  in  the  day  of  trouble,  and  I  will 
deliver  you." 


CHAPTER  XVI. 


THE    LAW    OF    RETRIBUTION. 


"So  they  hanged  Haman  on  the  gallows  that  he  had  pre 
pared  for  Mordecai." — Esther  vii :   10. 


Retribution ! 


Haunted  and  dogged  him,  through  the  shadows  dim, 
Outran  his  heavy  step,  awaited  him, 
As  through  his  spacious  halls  he  passed  and  sought 
His  private  chamber." — Two  Millions. 


A  proverb  says:  "  Harm  watch,  harm  catch/'  and  it 
is  a  true  saying.  The  Sacred  writings  teach,  by  direct 
precept,  and  by  narratives,  that  there  is  a  Providence 
that  makes  the  way  of  transgressors  hard,  so  that  the 
sinners  own  wickedness  reproves  him,  and  his  own 
backslidings  correct  him.  A  gallows  is  not  a  pleasant 
pulpit,  nor  an  agreeable  place  for  a  sermon,  yet  we  can 
not  leave  one  so  high  as  Hainan's  without  some  further 
moralizirigs.  Fifty  cubits  high,  the  highest,  I  pre 
sume,  ever  built  since  the  foundation  of  the  world. 
The  cubit,  among  the  ancients,  was  of  a  different  length 
among  different  nations.  The  Roman  cubit  is  gener 
ally  estimated  at  seventeen  inches  and  four-tenths; 


256  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

and  the  Hebrew  cubit,  at  a  little  less  than  twenty-two 
inches;  and  the  English  cubit,  at  eighteen  inches. 
Hainan's  gallows  was,  therefore,  some  seventy-five  to 
ninety  feet  high. 

In  Hainan's  history,  as  in  that  of  jSamson,  we  have 
a  most  remarkable  illustration  of  the  terrible  law  of 
retribution,  which  the  Supreme  Ruler  of  the  universe 
has  ordained,  the  presence  of  which  runs  like  a  flame 
of  fire  through  all  history,  and  through  all  the  dispen 
sations  of  Providence.  In  selecting  foxes  as  instru 
ments  of:  his  vengeance,  Samson  selected  the  animals 
which,  of  all  others,  were  the  most  appropriate  to  the 
nature  of  the  insult.  Foxes  are  cunning,  and  it  was 
through  their  wit  the  Philistines  had  prevailed  against 
him.  They  won  the  garments  from  him,  at  his  wed 
ding,  by  stratagem,  and  their  cornfields  were  burnt  by 
foxes — animals  proverbial  for  their  cunning. 

But  the  judgments  of  God  that  begin  on  a  man's 
property,  if  not  arrested  by  penitence  and  forgiveness, 
soon  take  hold  on  his  person.  This  was  the  process 
with  Job,  and  with  the  Egyptians,  though,  in  them, 
the  attributes  illustrated  are  different.  From  the  mur 
rain  among  their  cattle,  the  LORD  proceeded  until  their 
first-born  were  slain.  And  if  judgments  begin  at  the 
house  of  God,  what  will  be  the  end  of  the  ungodly, 
who  obey  not  the  Gospel  ? 

When  the  Philistines  saw  their  cornfields,  vineyards 
and  olives  destroyed,  they  at  once  understood  how,  and 
for  what  it  was  done;  they,  therefore,  came  and  burnt 
Samson's  wife  and  her  father,  inflicting  upon  her  the 
very  death  threatened,  and  to  escape  which  she  had 
betrayed  her  newly  married  husband.  And  because 


THE    PHILISTINES    AND    THE    JEWS.  257 

Samson  had  burnt  their  fields  of  corn,  the  Philistines 
burnt  the  Timnites.  They  must  have  felt  that  Samson 
had  been  unjustly  treated,  and  hoped,  by  this  means, 
to  appease  him.  The  retribution  upon  Samson's  wife 
and  father  was  most  inhuman  and  barbarous,  and,  in 
every  way,  out  of  all  proportion  in  its  severity.  For 
it  does  not  appear  that  either  of  them  had  anything  to 
do  with  the  burning  of  the  cornfields,  yet  their  own 
countrymen  burnt  them  for  what  the  Hebrew  Samson 
had  done.  Samson's  wife,  in  trying  to  avoid  Scylla, 
fell  into  Charybdis.  She  betrayed  her  husband,  be 
cause  she  feared  her  Philistine  brethren  would  burn 
her.  and  her  father's  house,  with  fire,  and  yet,  by  their 
hands,  she  was  burned  with  fire,  and  her  father  also. 
She  leaped  into  the  flames  she  meant  to  avoid.  And  so 
the  Jews,  who  crucified  our  Lord,  did  the  same  thing. 
The  Pharisees  and  priests  did  violence  to  their  con 
science — and  were  determined  not  to  receive  Jesus  as 
the  Messiah.  According  to  their  ideas  of  the  charac 
ter  of  the  Messiah,  if  they  received  Jesus  as  such,  the 
Romans  would  come  down  on  them  with  fire  and  sword. 
Their  convictions  were  on  the  side  of  Jesus'  miracles, 
but  their  fears  were  against  His  claims  to  be  the  Mes 
siah.  Their  rejection  of  Him,  therefore,  was  not  on 
the  ground  that  he  did  not  perform  miracles,  but  be 
cause  of  what  they  supposed  would  be  the  consequen 
ces;  and  here  they  made  a  great  mistake.  They  did 
not  act  from  principle,  bat  from  expediency.  They 
consulted  not  what  was  right,  but  their  prejudices  and 
their  fears.  Their  unbelief  arose  not  from  a  defect  in 
the  Gospel  evidences,  but  from  their  low  views  of  reli 
gion,  and  their  supreme  selfishness.  They  thought 


258  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

H  their  self-interests  required  them  to  reject  Jesus,  and, 
therefore,  they  would  not  receive  Him  as  the  Messiah. 
They  professed  to  proceed  against  Him,  and  to  put 
Him  to  death,  as  Caesar's  friends,  lest  the  Romans 
should  come  and  destroy  them.  And  they  succeeded 
in  crucifying  Him,  but  the  Romans  came,  and  burnt 
their  temple  and  city  with  fire. 

These  cases,  as  also  the  case  of  Pharaoh,  show  most 
conclusively  that  it  is  foolish  and  vain  for  men  to 
attempt  to  stifle  conviction  by  their  supposed  self-inter 
ests.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  sacrifice  truth  for  fear 
of  any  temporal  calamity.  The  history  of  Divine 
Providence  demonstrates  that  it  is  the  rule  of  His 
retributive  justice  to  bring  on  men  the  very  evil  they 
try  to  escape  by  doing  violence  to  their  convictions,  or 
even  to  what  should  have  been  their  convictions,  for 
the  stupidity,  obtuseness,  or  indistinct  conceptions  of 
truth,  or  duty,  do  not  in  anywise  invalidate  their  para 
mount  claims.  It  requires  no  argument  to  prove  that  it 
is  common  for  men  to  pursue  what  they  suppose,  at  the 
time,  to  be  for  their  own  interest,  in  spite  of  their 
convictions,  and  it  is  scarcely  necessary  to  present 
illustrations  of  God's  punishing  such  men  for  their 
disregard  of  right  principle,  by  bringing  on  them  the 
very  calamities  which  they  hoped  to  escape  by  wrong 
doing.  The  forms  under  which  the  principles  that  are 
stated  and  illustrated  in  the  cases  just  cited — of  the 
Pharisees  and  priests — may  have  been  various  at  dif 
ferent  times,  and  with  different  persons,  but  the  lapse 
of  centuries  has  not  changed  the  Divine  Ptule.  It  has 
never  been  repealed.  There  has  been  no  dying  out  of 
the  principle.  Our  streets  and  prisons  are  full  of  illus 
trations  of  a  retributive  Providence. 


DIVINE   JUDGMENTS    JUST.  259 

Let  it,  then,  be  repeated,  the  history  of  the  world,  in 
the  light  of  Divine  Providence,  is  but  an  illuminated 
volume  of  Retributive  Justice.  The  punishment  which 
God  inflicts,  seen  from  a  Bible  stand-point,  takes  the 
shape  of  the  very  calamity  which  men  sacrificed  prin 
ciple  to  escape,  or  hoped  to  avert  by  continuing  in  sin. 
This  was,  literally,  the  case  with  the  Jews.  They 
thought  to  propitiate  the  Romans  by  crucifying  Jesus  y 
but,  because  of  their  rejection  of  Christ,  God  stirred 
up  the  Romans  to  come  and  destroy  them.  And  so,  al 
ways,  the  resort  to  unlawful  means  to  avert  an  impend 
ing  evil,  or  to  prevent  evil,  is  only  to  make  the  matter 
worse.  And  the  Divine  judgments  frequently,  if  not 
always,  carry  in  them  the  stamp  and  print  of  the  sin 
for  which  they  are  inflicted.  There  is  a  conformity 
between  the  crime  and  the  punishment.  Nor  is  there 
any  view  of  sin,  or  of  the  Divine  Justice,  more  awful 
than  this.  The  Romans  did  come  and  take  away  the 
place  and  nation  of  the  very  men  who  sinned  in  trying 
to  propitiate  them.  The  Jews  acted  on  the  principle 
of  doing  evil  that  good  might  come,  but  the  good  did 
not  come,  and  the  evil  increased  to  sevenfold  vengeance. 
This  is  a  striking  case,  but  by  no  means  the  only  one 
in  the  Bible.  In  the  conquest  of  Canaan,  we  find  that 
a  certain  king  seems  to  have  been  treated  in  a  barba 
rous  manner.  His  thumbs  and  great  toes  were  cut  oif. 
But  even  the  heathen  and  savage  Adoni-bezek  recog 
nized  the  principle  that  he  was  treated  as  he  had 
treated  others.  "  Three  score  and  ten  kings,"  said  he, 
"  having  their  thumbs  and  great  toes  cut  off,  gathered 
their  meat  under  my  table  :  as  I  have  done,  so  hath  the 
Lord  God  requited  me."  Pharaoh  decreed  that  all 


260  THE    HEBREW-PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

the  Hebrew  male  children  should  be  drowned,  and  he 
was  himself  and  his  host  drowned  in  the  Red  Sea. 
Eli's  great  sin  was  in  not  restraining  his  sons,  and  he 
was  punished  in  their  death.  Hezekiah's  weakness  was 
in  showing  his  treasure  to  the  servants  of  the  king  of 
Babylon,  and  he  was  punished  in  having  it  taken  from 
him,  and  his  own  eyes  put  out. 

Now,  as  we  are  not  endowed  with  omnipresence  and 
with  omniscience,  so  it  is  not  fair  to  require  us  to  sup 
port  this  rule  by  an  appeal  to  individual  histories  in  our 
day.  And  yet  I  am  perfectly  sure  that,  in  every  com 
munity,  intelligent  observers  will  be  at  no  loss  to  find 
illustrations  in  point.  The  rule  of  God's  retributive 
justice  is,  that  when  conscience  is  set  at  nought  and 
principle  sacrificed,  for  the  sake  of  some  imagined  ad 
vantage,  then  the  result  is  a  reaction,  that  brings  upon 
the  sinner  a  punishment,  in  kind  and  sort,  appropriate 
to  the  nature  of  his  sin.  To  support  the  truth  of  this 
rule,  it  is  not  necessary  to  prove  that  it  is  applied,  in 
the  present  world,  in  every  individual  case  ]  but  only, 
that  we  have  sufficient  proof  that  it  is  the  general  rule. 
And  this,  we  think,  can  hardly  be  denied.  How  is  it 
with  the  tradesman  or  mechanic,  who,  against  the  prin 
ciples  of  his-jeducation  and  his  conviction  of  right,  con 
tinues  his  business  on  the  Lord's  Day,  for  the  sake  of 
some  supposed  necessity  or  temporary  advantage  ?  In 
the  long  run,  is  he  prosperous  ?  Is  any  Sabbath-break 
ing  community,  in  the  long  run,  a  truly  happy  one  ? 
And  the  merchant,  or  banker,  who,  for  the  sake  of  pre 
venting  apprehended  bankruptcy,  sacrifices  principle — 
does  he  come  out  well  in  the  end  ?  Does  not  all  expe 
rience  prove  that  honesty  is  the  best  policy  f  Take  any 


OUR   CITIES    PREACHING.  261 

given  period  of  twenty-five  years,  or  even  half  of  that 
number,  in  any  of  our  commercial  emporiums.  Give 
us  the  full  and  faithful  history  of  all  the  young  traders, 
merchants  and  clerks  who  have  figured,  during  that 
time,  in  Boston,  New  York  or  New  Orleans,  and  say, 
who  are  the  happiest  and  best  to  do  in  the  world  ? 
With  whom  would  you  prefer  your  lot  to  be  cast? 
With  those  who  have  maintained  a  conscience  void  of 
offense  toward  God  and  man,  or  with  those  who  have 
sacrificed  principle  for  the  sake  of  some  temporary  ben 
efit?  On  which  side  of  the  divine  rule  does  your  obser 
vation  of  every  day  life  place  those  who  are  blighted 
in  name,  bankrupt  in  estate,  and  broken  in  heart  ?  Is 
not  the  preponderance  of  such  vastly  on  the  side  of 
those  who  are  palpable  violators  of  right  principle  ? 
And  do  you  not  believe,  from  the  lessons  of  our  streets, 
that  if  faithful  biographies  were  written  of  its  moving 
masses,  that  it  would  be  seen  that  their  wrongdoing  is 
the  fruit  of  wrong  principles^  either  avowed,  or  allowed 
to  enter  into  their  calculations,  and  that  the  turning 
point  of  their  moral  delinquency  was  just  where  right 
and  expediency  battled  for  the  supremacy — the  point 
just  where  conscience  rose  in  arms,  and  made  a  stand 
against  corrupt  principle,  marking  out  clearly  the  path 
way  of  duty,  and  where,  on  the  contrary,  imagined  in 
terest  said,  stoutly  and  defiantly,  No  ;  but  this  line  of 
conduct  must  be  pursued,  at  least,  for  the  present — and 
they  yielded,  and  are  lost.  Every  one  has  witnessed 
such  cases — perhaps  numerous  instances  of  singular 
vicissitude.  One  misfortune  after  another  falls  upon  a 
man ;  and,  like  a  camel  in  the  slime-pits  of  the  Dead 
Sea,  his  flounderings  only  sink  him  the  deeper.  All 


262  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

his  efforts  to  recover  himself  prove  unavailing.  The 
Romans  are  upon  him,  and,  to  escape  them,  he  sacri 
fices  principle;  but,  instead  of  being  appeased  by  his 
sacrifice,  they  come  upon  him  with  tenfold  vengeance, 
and,  now,  of  all  men,  he  is  the  most  miserable.  The 
bitterness  of  present  degradation  is  enhanced  by  the 
recollections  of  former  prosperity,  and  by  the  conscious 
ness  that  he  sold  his  convictions  of  right  for  the  pur 
pose  of  some  imagined  benefit.  The  sting  of  the  never- 
dying  worm,  that  gnaws  in  his  vitals,  is,  that  he  feels 
that  he  is  reaping  what  he  sowed.  His  punishment 
has  an  awful  and  mysterious  conformity  to  his  sin.  The 
avenging  eye  and  drawn  sword  of  Nemesis  are  ever  and 
always  upon  him.  He  himself  is  hell.  A  monument 
of  the  justice  of  Grod  upon  one  that  swerves  from  right 
for  the  sake  of  what  appeared  to  be  profitable.  And 
even  if  it  be  possible  for  some  individual,  or  for  several, 
who  have  adopted  expediency  rather  than  principle,  as 
their  rule  of  conduct,  to  go  on,  unvisited  by  the  Ro 
mans,  to  the  end  of  life ;  it  only  proves  that  there  is  a 
future  state  where  the  account  must  be  settled  ;  and, 
unless  repented  of  and  forgiven,  the  delay  only  enhances 
the  terribleness  of  the  retribution.  Nor  is  there  any 
fact  or  principle  revealed  in  science  or  religion  that  an 
nuls  this  fearful  connection  of  sin  and  punishment; 
and,  if  the  same  character  is  preserved  to  retributive 
justice  in  a  future  state,  then  will  the  sins  of  the  finally 
impenitent  and  unforgiven  eternally  reproduce  them 
selves  in  their  self-procured  tormentings.  We  have 
only  to  suppose  a  remorseful  and  agitated  conscience, 
pursuing  the  incorrigibly  wicked,  and  we  have  an  agent 
of  torment  as  endless  as  their  own  existence,  fixing  the 


THE    EVER   GNAWING   VULTURE.  263 

precise  Jdnd  and  degree  of  punishment  adjudicated. 
Suppose  a  man,  now,  sacrifice  right  for  the  sake  of 
gratifying  any  of  his  wicked  passions,  and  that  he  is 
adjudged  to  have  those  passions  ever  raging  and  never 
gratified — the  vulture  to  gnaw  and  the  liver  to  grow, 
and  the  vulture  still  to  gnaw.  And  is  not  this  the  fire 
that  is  unquenchable?  Or,  that  a  man  who  sold  his 
conscience  and  baitercd  his  principles  for  wealth  or 
political  station,  is  sentenced  to  hankering  eternally 
for  gold,  or  is  doomed  eternally  to  climb  for  eminent 
stations,  and  yet  be  as  eternally  sliding  down  and  clasp 
ing  his  hands  in  the  most  excruciating  poverty;  and 
then  say,  have  we  not  here  the  worm  that  dieth  not  ?  In 
God's  reckoning,  nothing  is  gained  by  doing  violence 
to  a  sense  of  right.  True  principle  is  ilie  only  expe 
diency  known  in  the  annals  of  eternity.  The  concilia 
tion  offered  to  evil,  to  avert  it,  is  the  agent  for  bringing 
down  its  fearful  results  on  our  heads.  The  man  that 
will  be  rich  by  fraud,  is  heaping  up  riches  for  the  Ro 
mans  to  dissipate — building  a  gallows  to  hang  himself 
upon.  When  a  man  surrenders  his  principles  of  right  ^ 
to  gain  a  name  or  a  position  in  the  world,  he  is  build 
ing  a  gallows  for  himself.  It  is  an  unrepealed  law  of 
Heaven,  that,  as  we  measure  to  others,  so  it  shall  be 
measured  to  us  again.  What  God  commands  we  must 
do.  His  will  is  always  right  and  always  supreme.  Our 
duty  is  obedience. 

Again,  it  is  a  singular  and  significant  proof  of  an 
overruling  providence  in  regard  to  this  rule  of  retribu 
tive  justice,  that  so  many  of  the  inventors  of  the  means 
and  instruments  for  taking  the  life  of  their  fellow  men, 


264  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

have  perished  by  their  own  inventions.  *  Thalaris  was 
consumed  in  his  own  brazen  bull.  The  regent  Morton, 
who  first  introduced  the  "Maiden/'  a  Scotch  instru 
ment  of  decapitation,  like  the  inventor  of  the  Guillo 
tine,  perished  by  his  own  instrument.  The  same  is 
true  of  Brodie,  who  induced  the  Edinburgh  magistrates 
to  use  the  "  new  drop/'  the  same  still  in  use.  Marat, 
the  bloody  minded,  died  from  the  assassin's  dagger. 
Danton  and  Robespierre  conspired  the  death  of  Verg- 
niaud,  and  of  his  Republican  confreres,  the  noble 
Girondist,  and  then  Robespierre  lived  only  long  enough 
to  see  the  death  of  Danton,  before  perishing  himself  on 
the  same  guillotine.  The  Duke  of  Orleans,  the  infa 
mous  Egalite,  voted  for  the  death  of  Louis  XVI,  and 
not  long  afterward  was  guillotined  himself.  The  wicked 
are  taken  in  their  own  net.  They  fall  into  -the  ditch 
their  own  hands- have  digged.  "  Bloody  minded  and 
deceitful  men  shall  not  live  out  half  their  days."  Sin 
ning  is  a  sure  paymaster,  and  if  delayed,  the  interest 
compounds  rapidly.  It  is  not  necessary  to  adjourn  to 
the  court  of  futurity  to  know  that  sin  is  an  evil  thing 
and  bitter.  It  is  in  vain  that  unbelievers  reason  against 
the  presence  of  a  divine  government  in  the  world.  The 
facts  of  every  day  life — the  painful  lessons  of  our  streets, 
display  before  our  eyes  the  most  convincing  evidence 
that  the  way  of  transgressors  is  hard.  Who  has  not 
seen  the  Almighty  pursuing  the  sinner  with  evil  ? 
What  else  is  this  condemning  voice  of  conscience  within  ? 


"  Ncc  lex  est  justior  ulla 


Quam  necis  artifices  artc  perire  sua." 

Nor  is  there  a  more  just  law  titan  this,  that  the  fabricators  of  'death  should 
perish  ly  their  own  invention.  This  subject  is  more  briefly  presented  in  my 
"  Giant  Judge,"  and  partly  in  the  same  language.  See  the  latter  part  of 
chapter  xi. 


ANGUISH    FOLLOWS    SIN.  265 

What  meaneth  this  anguish  of  the  heart  ?  What  are 
these  wounds,  inflicted  by  the  terrible  disorders  of  the 
passions?  There  is  enough  now  to  prove  that  the  sin 
ner  is  his  own  destroyer.  God  need  not  corne  forth 
from  the  secret  place  of  his  majesty  to  punish  the  poor 
sinner.  He  has  only  to  let  Ephraiui,  who  is  joined  to 
his  idols,  alone,  and  they  will  turn  and  devour  him. 
The  infernal  fire  is  kindled  by  his  own  hand.  The 
worm  that  never  dies,  he  has  nursed  in  his  own  heart 
until  it  has  grown  so  venomous  as  to  seize  it  for  undy 
ing  torture.  The  way  of  transgressors  against  both 
natural  and  moral  laws  is  NOW  HARD.  The  day  of 
reckoning  follows  close  after  sinful  indulgence.  Nature 
is  inexorable.  Her  outraged  laws  must  be  avenged. 
The  libertine  and  the  drunkard  find  it  to  be  so.  Their 
bodies  and  minds  soon  bear  the  marks  of  guilt  and  pun 
ishment.  Passions  and  appetites  abused,  soon  change 
the  body  into  a  prison  for  the  soul.  No  fugitive  es 
capes  the  police  of  God  and  Nature.  The  penalties 
annexed  by  the  Creator  to  the  violation  of  the  laws  of 
our  physical  constitution  are  as  awful  as  they  are  inevi 
table.  Sooner  or  later,  at  home  or  abroad,  on  land  or 
sea,  conscience  will  awake  and  seize  the  guilty,  and 
abused  nature  will  cry  out,  and  fearful  retributions  will 
fall  upon  them ;  or  if  not  in  this  life,  they  will  be  all 
the  more  fearful  because  they  fall  upon  them  beyond 
the  grave,  where  no  repentance  nor  acts  of  pardon  are 
known.  Is  there  then  no  escape  for  the  impenitent  ? 
No — none  for  the  impenitent,  but  there  is  forgiveness 
for  the  penitent.  This  is  the  day  of  grace.  This  is 
the  hour  of  pardon.  There  is  a  great  Redeemer,  the 
Lamb  of  God,  who  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world. 
12 


266        THE  HEBREW- PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

And  if  we  confess  our  sins  to  God,  He  is  faithful  and 
just  to  forgive  us  our  sins,  and  to  cleanse  us  from  all 
unrighteousness.  THE  BLOOD  OF  JESUS  CHRIST  His 

SON  CLEANSETII  US  FROM  ALL  SIN. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 


THE    COUNTER-DECREE    ISSUED. 


"  Write  ye   also  for  the  Jews .     And  he  wrote  in  the 

king's  name,  and  sealed  it  with  the  king's  ring,  and  sent  letters 
by  posts  on  horseback,  and  riders  on  mules,  camels  and  young 
dromedaries.  So  the  posts  that  rode  upon  mules  and  camels 
went  out,  being  hastened  and  pressed  by  the  king's  command 
ment.  And  the  decree  was  given  at  Shushan  the  palace." 

Esther  viiL 

-So  many  are 


The  sufferings  which  no  human  aid  can  reach. 
It  needs  must  be  a  duty  doubly  sweet 

To  heal  the  few  we  can ." 

Coleridge. 

IN  the  previous  chapters  we  have  witnessed  the  plot 
ting  of  Haman  and  his  fall.  We  have  seen  him  hang 
ing  on  his  own  high  gallows  in  shame  greater  than  his 
honor  had  ever  been.  And  so  palpable  are  the  lessons 
of  retributive  justice  in  his  doom,  that  I  suppose  every 
Jew  and  Gentile,  to  this  day,  who  may  stop  a  moment 
to  contemplate  his  gallows,  is  ready  to  say,  "0  Lord, 
so  let  the  malice  of  the  wicked  come  to  an  end,  but 
establish  thou  the  just." 

Now  that  the  enemy  of  the  Jews  had  met  his  fate, 
Mordecai  is  advanced  in  the  king's  favor,  for  the  queen 

12A 


268  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

told  the  king  how  nearly  he  was  related  to  her,  and  he 
was  made  a  prince  of  the  empire.  Probably  up  to  this 
moment,  although  others  were  aware  of  it,  the  king 
did  not  know  that  Mordecai  was  her  foster  cousin,  and 
most  likely,  till  the  queen  told  him  in  her  petition  for 
her  life,  the  king  did  not  know  that  she  herself  belonged 
to  the  seed  of  the  Jews.  The  house  of  Haman  was 
given  by  the  king  to  the  queen ;  that  is,  his  estates. 
These  he  had  justly  forfeited,  so  that  the  king  could 
rightly  bestow  them  on  the  queen  as  a  sort  of  compen 
sation  for  the  danger  she  had  been  in.  And  Esther 
made  Mordecai  her  steward  over  Hainan's  estates,  and 
the  king  gave  him  the  signet  ring  which  he  had  for 
merly  given  to  Haman.  And  as  to  both  the  queen  and 
Mordecai,  we  should  observe  how  respectful  and  modest 
they  were.  It  is  some  four  or  five  years  since  she  was 
crowned,  and  yet  she  has  not  troubled  the  king  to  pro 
vide  for  her  relations.  And  Mordecai,  too,  was  as 
modest  and  diffident  in  presenting  his  claims  as  he  had 
been  brave  and  faithful  in  deserving  honor  and  rewards. 
He  has  been  diligent  in  educating  and  protecting  the 
queen  in  her  helpless  orphanage,  and  he  saved  the  king's 
life  when  his  chamberlains  had  conspired  against  him ; 
but,  up  to  this  time,  where  is  his  reward  ?  Why  he  has 
had  the  best  of  all  rewards,  an  approving  conscience 
and  the  approbation  of  his  God;  and  now  both  the 
king  and  queen  conspire  to  heap  honors  upon  him. 
Ahasuerus  makes  him  lord  keeper  of  the  Privy  seal,  or 
Lord  High  Chancellor,  in. the  place  of  Haman,  removed, 
and  the  queen  makes  him  Lord  High  Steward  in  the 
management  of  Hainan's  estates.  How  happy  a  change 
for  the  Jews!  Instead  of  the  wicked  Haman,  they 


SLIPPERY    PLACES.  269 

have  now  near  the  throne  a  bosom  friend  in  whom  they 
may  repose,  without  fear  of  confusion,  and  on  the  throne 
a  queen  all  powerful,  acknowledged  to  be  of  their  own 
blood.  How  true  the  Bible  proverb,  he  that  heapeih 
iip  riches,  knoiceth  not  who  shall  gather  t7iem ;  and 
that  other  saying,  also,  "  Promotion  cometh  neither 
from  the  east  nor  from  the  west,  nor  from  the  south. 
But  God  is  the  judge :  he  putteth  down  one  and  set- 
teth  up  another.  All  the  horns  of  the  wicked  also  will 
I  cut  off;  but  the  horns  of  the  righteous  shall  be  ex 
alted,  saith  the  LORD."  Ps.  Ixxv  and  xxxix. 

Hainan  has  fallen — Mordecai  has  risen,  and  God's 
people  are  saved.  Haman  inherits  the  gibbet  he  had 
prepared  for  Mordecai,  and  Mordecai  falls  heir  to  the 
house  and  place  and  honors  of  Haman.  It  is  the  Lord's 
doings,  and  is  truly  marvellous  in  our  eyes.  And  yet 
both  reaped  as  they  had  sown,  and  gathered  the  ripened 
fruits  of  their  own  doings.  Evil  doing  and  honest 
innocence  have  now  paid  their  debts  to  both  their 
clients.  There  was  no  injustice  nor  overreaching,  nor 
double-dealing  in  all  this.  No  unlawful  nor  violent 
proceedings  had  in  the  case,  for  Haman  having  justly 
forfeited  his  life  and  his  estates,  and  Mordecai  being 
fully  entitled  to  reward  for  his  services,  and  morally 
fitted  to  enjoy  the  royal  favors,  why  shall  he  not  have 
them  ?  But  how  terrible  are  the  reverses  of  princes, 
and  how  sudden  the  fall  of  statesmen.  Wolsey,  Ra 
leigh,  Essex  and  Louis  Phillippe,  are  only  a  few  out  of 
many,  that  illustrate  how  slippery  are  the  steps  of 
thrones  and  the  standings  around  them.  One  hour 
changed  the  whole  face  of  the  Persian  empire.  In  the 
morning  every  knee  but  that  of  Mordecai  bows  to  Ha- 


270  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

man,  but  in  the  evening,  he  hangs  "  like  a  despised 
vermin,  for  a  prey  to  the  ravens;"  and  he  who  in  the 
morning  was  designed  for  the  gallows,  is  now  prime 
minister,  and  rules  over  the  princes  and  captains  of  the 
empire.  He  who  was  faithful  to  his  God  and  loyal  to 
his  king  at  the  gate,  is  now  called  from  the  gate  to  sit 
up  next  to  the  throne.  How  wonderful  are  the  retribu 
tive  providences  of  God  ?  And  on  that  very  day  did 
the  king  give  the  house  of  Haman,  the  Jew's  enemy, 
unto  Esther.  If  the  proud  and  wicked  courtier  had 
place  and  wealth  to  do  mischief  with,  but  has  forfeited 
them,  why  shall  they  not  now  be  given  to  the  queen  to 
do  good  with,  and  why  may  not  Mordecai  take  care  of 
them.  ?  If  the  arch -plotter  is  hanging  on  his  own  gal 
lows,  and  Mordecai  is  possessed  of  his  estates,  is  it  not 
as  the  good  Book  saith  :  "  A  good  man  leaveth  an  in 
heritance  to  his  children's  children  ;  and  the  wealth  of 
the  sinner  is  laid  up  for  the  just  ?"  Prov.  xiii :  22. 
And  again  :  "  This  is  the  portion  of  a  wicked  man 
with  God,  and  the  heritage  of  oppressors,  which  they 
shall  receive  of  the  Almighty.  If  his  children  be  mul 
tiplied,  it  is  for  the  sword  :  and  his  offspring  shall  not 
be  satisfied  with  bread.  Those  that  remain  of  him  shall 
be  buried  in  death :  and  his  widows  shall  not  weep. 
Though  he  heap  up  silver  as  the  dust,  and  prepare 
raiment  as  the  clay.  He  may  prepare  it,  but  the  just 
shall  put  it  on,  and  the  innocent  shall  divide  the  silver. 
He  buildeth  his  house  as  a  moth,  and  as  a  booth  that 
the  keeper  maketh.  The  rich  man  shall  lie  down,  but 
he  shall  not  be  gathered  :  he  openeth  his  eyes  and  he 
is  not.  Terrors  take  hold  on  him  as  waters,  a  tempest 
stealeth  him  away  in  the  night.  The  east  wind  car- 


HAMAN'S  PLEAS  EXPOSED.  271 

rieth  him  away,  and  he  departeth  :  and  as  a  storm 
hurleth  him  out  of  his  place.  For  God  shall  cast  upon 
him,  and  not  spare  :  he  would  fain  flee  out  of  his  hand. 
Men  shall  clap  their  hands  at  him,  and  shall  hiss  him 
out  of  his  place."  Job  xxvii :  13,  23. 

But  we  must  not  forget  that,  though  the  queen  and 
Mordecai  are  now  saved,  and  their  great  adversary  is 
out  of  the  way,  still  the  cruel  decree  is  in  force  against 
the  Jews,  throughout  the  Persian  empire.  We  are  not, 
then,  surprised  that  the  queen  wept,  and  besought  the 
king  to  arrest  the  mischief  designed  her  people  by  Ha 
inan.  And  it  pleased  the  king  to  accept  her  supplica 
tion.  So  he  held  out  the  golden  sceptre.  And  when 
the  queen  arose  and  stood  before  the  king,  she  made  a 
most  beautiful  and  eloquent  plea.  By  various  well- 
timed  expressions,  she  insinuates  her  purpose  into  the 
king's  mind,  and  shows  her  profound  respect  for  him, 
and  submission  to  his  good  pleasure.  She  is  careful  to 
ascribe  all  the  mischief  devised  against  the  Jews  to 
Hainan.  She  relieves  the  king  from  any  suspicion  of 
envy  and  hatred  toward  them,  and  repeats,  again  and 
again,  that  Haman  was  wicked  and  deceitful  and  selfish 
and  treacherous.  She  shows  the  king  that  Hainan 
had  imposed  upon  him — that,  in  this  whole  business, 
he  had  contrived  to  gratify  his  own  malice,  fill  his  own 
chests,  and  despoil  the  kingdom.  The  decree  was  ob 
tained  by  craft  and  on  false  pretences,  and  should, 
therefore,  be  repealed.  And  then,  mildly,  she  closes 
by  an  appeal  to  the  king's  regard  for  her :  "I  cannot 
see  the  destruction  of  my  kindred.  My  heart  will  sink 
under  it.  It  will  kill  me  to  see  such  a  catastrophe 
come  unto  my  people.  And  she  fell  at  the  king's  feet, 


272  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

and  besought  him,  with  tears,  to  put  away  the  evil  of 
Hainan  and  his  device  against  the  Jews."  (Esth.  viii : 
1 — 6.)  Her  pleading  is  remarkable  for  its  respectful 
tone — its  earnestness  and  feeling.  She  does  not  seem 
to  have  any  tears  for  herself,  when  her  own  life  was 
chiefly  at  stake  ;  but  the  fountain  of  tears  was  unsealed, 
when  she  came  to  plead  for  her  kindred.  David  had 
tears  to  shed  over  the  wickedness  of  men,  though  he  had 
slain  a  bear  as  a  lion  rends  a  kid,  and  Goliath  of  Gath 
with  a  smooth  stone  from  the  brook.  And  Jeremiah's 
head  was  a  fountain  of  tears,  because  of  the  desolations 
of  Zion,  and  the  calamities  of  his  countrymen.  And 
so  of  Paul;  we  read  not  of  his  tears  when  he  was 
stoned  and  left  for  dead,  or  shipwrecked,  or  beaten  with 
stripes,  or  contending  with  wild  beasts.  Neither  the 
lions  nor  the  axe  could  bring  tears  from  his  eyes ;  but 
anxiety  for  the  salvation  of  his  countrymen,  the  Jews, 
overwhelmed  him  with  many  tears.  His  heart's  desire 
and  prayer  to  God  for  Israel,  was  that  they  might  be 
saved.  It  is  proper  to  feel  an  earnest  desire  for  the 
salvation  of  our  fellow  men,  and  to  do  all  we  can  for 
them.  John  Knox  was  known  to  spend  much  of  his 
time  in  prayer,  and  was  often  heard  pleading  with  God 
alone  in  his  chamber,  as  a  man  talketh  earnestly  with 
his  friend,  saying :  "  Give  me  Scotland  or  I  die." 
And  God  heard  him,  and  he  gave  Scotland  an  open 
Bible,  and  education  to  her  people,  and  a  preached 
Gospel,  and  Scotland  has  nobly  honored  him,  and  there 
she  is,  to-day,  a  monument  of  Knox's  prayer  and  faith. 
What  heroism  is  greater  than  to  live  for  the  Church  of 
the  living  God  and  die  for  her  interests  ? 


PRESUMPTION    REBUKED.  273 


'  I  love  thy  Church,  0  God  ! 

Her  walls  before  Thee  stand, 
Dear  as  the  apple  of  thine  eye, 
And  graven  on  thy  hand  ! 

For  her  my  tears  shall  fall ; 

For  her  my  prayers  ascend  ; 
To  her  my  cares  and  toils  be  given, 

'Till  toils  and  cares  shall  end  !" 


In  replying,  the  king  reminds  the  queen  that  he  had 
shown  the  greatest  readiness  to  comply  with  previous 
requests,  and  that  he  was  now  desirous  of  equal  prompt 
ness  for  arresting  Hainan's  decree,  as  far  as  it  could  be 
done  consistent  with  the  unchangeable  laws  ot  the  em 
pire.  "  For  the  writing  which  is  written  in  the  king's 
name,  and  sealed  with  the  king's  ring,  may  no  man — 
not  even  the  king  himself — reverse. "  What,  then, 
can  be  done  ?  The  case  is  an  urgent  one.  The  queen 
is  importunate — a  whole  race  of  people  are  in  danger 
— the  whole  empire  is  to  be  bathed  in  blood — the  king 
had  legal  authority  to  do  his  will  upon  Hainan,  but  he 
cannot  revoke  the  cruel  decree  of  Haman  against  the 
Jews.  This  fundamental  law  of  the  Medes  and  Per 
sians,  that  their  laws  could  not  be  changed  or  repealed, 
was  unwise  and  preposterous.  It  was,  in  fact,  blasphe 
mous — the  assuming  of  infallibility.  They  had  no 
right  to  put  such  a  law  into  their  "  Magna  Carta,"  or 
such  a  clause  into  their  "  Bill  of  Rights."  The  pro 
verb  is  true  which  says,  that  "  a  wise  man  changes  his 
opinions,  a  fool  never."  As  it  is  human  to  err,  so  it  is 
wise  to  reform. 

But  so  thought  not  Herod.  He  sinned  in  keeping 
an  oath  which  he  sinned  in  making,  whereas  such  an 

12B 


274  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

oath  was  not  binding,  and  should  have  been  disregarded, 
1  A  man  is  not  bound  to  keep  an  unlawful  or  sinful  oath. 
But  Ahasuerus  thinks  it  better  to  run  the  risk  of  de 
luging  his  kingdom  with  blood,  by  issuing  a  counter- 
decree,  rather  than  to  violate  the  laws  of  the  empire 
by  revoking  the  former  one.  It  may  have  been  that 
such  was  the  temper  of  the  times — so  numerous  and 
desperate  the  partisans  of  Hainan — that  this  counter- 
decree  was,  under  the  circumstances,  the  best  course 
for  the  king  to  take.  It  was  not,  certainly,  his  desire 
to  have  his  subjects  slay  each  other.  He  must  have 
hoped  that  the  second  decree  would  nullify  the  first,  and 
be  tantamount  to  its  revocation.  Accordingly,  the 
second  decree  is  equal,  in  every  respect,  to  the  first. 
It  is  as  broad,  and  as  long,  and  as  terrible,  and  as  irre 
vocable.  The  powers  granted  to  destroy  the  Jews  are 
not  recalled — they  cannot  be — but  it  is  made  lawful 
for  the  Jews  to  stand  and  defend  themselves.  Here 
read  Esther  viii :  7,  12,  inclusive. 

But  the  empire  is  vast.  Is  it  possible  to  send  this 
counter-decree  through  all  the  provinces  ?  Yes,  for 
there  is  yet  nine  months  to  come  before  the  day  ap 
pointed  for  the  massacre.  There  is  then  time  enough 
to  reach  the  most  distant  provinces:  But,  to  make 
sure  of  conveying  this  new  decree  to  the  Jews  every- 
x where,  from  India  to  Ethiopia — that  is,  from  Hindu 
stan  to  the  heart  of  Africa,  more  care  and  speed  were 
used  than  in  sending  the  former  one.  It  was  sent  by 
posts  on  horseback,  and  riders  on  mules,  camels  and 
young  dromedaries, 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  how  historical  researches 
corroborate  the  facts,  and  even  the  correctness  of  the 


HINDUSTAN   DERIVED.  275 

proper  names  of  the  Bible.     The  name  India,  for  ex 
ample,  which  we  find  in  this  history,  and  which  desig 
nates  a  portion  of  the  globe  that  is  much  talked  of  in 
our   day,  and  is,  no   doubt,  to  be  the   scene   of  great 
events  in  the  church  of  the  future,  is  from  the  Hebrew, 
ffoddo,  in  Syriac,  Hendoo,  and,  in  Arabic,  Hind,  from 
which,  doubtless,  Hindustan.     In  all  the  versions,  I 
believe,  the  Hebrew  is  rendered  as  in  our  text,  India, 
And  the  country  thus  designated  in  the  days  of  Ahasu- 
erus  was,  probably,  all  that  part  of  Asia  that  was  east 
of  the  Indus;  but,  subsequently,  it  came  to  mean  that 
portion  that  lies  between  the  Indus  on  the  west,  Bir- 
mah  and  Thibet  on  the  east,  and  between  Caucasus  on 
the  north,  and  the  Indian  Ocean  on  the  south.     The 
means  and  modes  of  traveling  in  Persia  are  very  differ 
ent  from  what  we  are  generally  accustomed  to.     Not 
much  change  has  taken  place  there  since  the  days  of 
the  great  king  Ahasuerus.     There  are  erected,  at  con 
venient  intervals,  along  the  routes  of  travel,  khans,  or 
post  houses,   for  the  purpose   of  defense  against  the 
Bedouins,  and   of  affording  provision  for  caravans  of 
traveling  merchants,  or  of  pilgrims.     A  khan  is  usu 
ally    a   square   building    of  stone  or    unburnt    brick, 
resembling,  as  seen   at   a  distance,  a  fortress.     It  is 
surrounded  with  a  lofty   wall,  and  flanked  by  round 
towers.     A  main  gateway  conducts  into  an  open  court, 
around  which  are  stalls  for  goods  and  animals.     In  the 
centre  of  the  area  is  a  platform  used  for  prayer  and 
sleeping.     Some  of  the  better  class  of  khans  have  an 
arcade,  terrace,  and  towers.     They  are  generally  ankle 
deep  in  chopped  straw  and  filth.     The  fleas,  and  such 
like  insects,  may  be  measured   by  the  bushel.     The 


276  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

well,  or  tank  of  water,  ujgually  smells  very  strong  of 
leather.  The  pilgrim  caravans  often  carry  felt  covered 
coffins,  which  contain  dead  bodies  to  be  interred  in  the 
sacred  cemeteries.  And  when  the  pilgrims,  their  cof 
fins  and  animals,  in  great  crowds,  are  shut  up  in  one 
of  these  khans  in  hot  weather,  for  several  days,  the 
whole  atmosphere  becomes  charged  with  noxious  gases, 
that  produce  sickness  and  death.  "  It  is  estimated/' 
says  Mr.  Loftus,  in  his  Susiana  and  Chaldea,  "that,  in 
healthy  seasons,  a  fifth  of  the  travelers,  overcome  with 
fever  and  other  diseases,  find  their  graves  in  the  desert; 
while,  in  times  of  cholera  and  epidemics,  the  average 
is  much  larger  of  those  who  fail  to  return  to  their  dis 
tant  homes."  The  same  author  states  that,  in  1831, 
out  of  a  population  of  70,000  in  the  city  of  Bagdad, 
12,000  died  of  fever,  (pp.  8  and  14.) 

Though  there  may  be  -some  difficulty?  as  we  observe 
in  the  writings  of  learned  men  on  the  subject,  in  defin 
ing  the  meaning  of  the  names  given  to  the  animals 
mentioned  in  the  text  as  having  been  used  for  carrying 
the  royal  decree,  it  is  very  certain  that  the  swiftest  and 
the  hardiest,  or  most  enduring  the  empire  could  fur 
nish,  were  employed.  Horses  were  in  use  before  the 
Trojan  war,  and  mules,  and  camels,  and  dromedaries 
belong  to  a  very  ancient  period  of  Asiatic  history. 
The  camel  is  common  to  the  whole  East,  from  Africa 
to  China.  This  animal  can  live  on  a  little  paste,  or  a 
few  beans  and  dry  sticks,  and  can  do,  comfortably,  seven 
or  eight,  or  even  ten  or  twelve  days  without  water,  and 
when  made  to  trot  and  gallop,  will  go  a  great  distance 
in  a  day.  Authors  vary  in  their  statements  on  this 
point,  from  one  hundred  and  fifty,  to  four  hundred 


ANCIENT    COURIERS.  277 

miles  in  twenty-four  hours.  The  couriers  of  the  Incas 
and  of  the  ancient  Mexicans,  like  the  couriers  and  run 
ners  of  South  America  at  the  present  day,  performed 
wonderful  feats  in  conveying  news  great  distances  in 
short  time.  Such  official  messengers  as  were  employed 
by  Mordecai  and  Esther,  have  been  in  use  from  very  early 
times.  In  the  days  of  Job,  certainly  prior  to  the  time  ^ 
of  Esther,  the  swiftness  of  the  post  was  well  known. 
In  the  book  of  Job,  the  rapidity  with  which  the  life  of 
man  passes  away,  is  compared  to  the  post,  the  swift 
ship,  and  the  eagle  hastening  to  his  prey,  (ix  Job.  ) 
The  administration  of  the  post  can  hardly  be  said, 
however,  to  have  been  regularly  established  before  the 
reign  of  Cyrus  the  Great.  Couriers  mounted  on  swift 
dromedaries,  had  been  often  employed  to  convey  news, 
and  carry  expresses  between  distant  places,  but  a  regu 
lar  system  of  post,  by  relays  of  horses,  and  other  ani 
mals,  is  believed  to  have  been  first  established  by  Cyrus, 
in  Persia.  Cyrus  ascertained,  by  experiment,  how  far 
a  horse  could  travel  with  ease,  and  there  caused  stables 
to  be  built,  and  thus  established  lines  of  posts  in  many 
directions  throughout  his  dominions.  He  appointed  a 
postmaster,  and  kept  horses  and  camels,  and  drom 
edaries,  and  men  at  each  of  their  stations. 

The  posts  traveled  day  and  night,  without  intermis 
sion,  fresh  riders  and  animals  being  supplied  at  the 
stations.  And  Xenophon  declares  that  these  posts  of 
Cyrus,  thus  traveling,  day  and  night,  went  "  faster 
than  the  cranes  can  fly."  The  same  system  is  estab 
lished  in  Persia  at  the  present  day,  and  substantially 
the  same  in  Turkey  and  throughout  all  Western  and 
Central  Asia,  except  that  it  is  usual  for  the  same  rider 


278  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

to  perform  the  whole  journey,  but  with  frequent  change 
of  horses.  The  first  rider  is  empowered  to  "  impress," 
or  seize,  for  the  public  service,  whatever  animals  he 
needs  on  the  way,  and  the  head  man  or  chief  of  every 
village,  is  bound  to  have*  a  horse  in  readiness  for  him 
the  very  moment  he  arrives.  And,  as  the  king's  'busi 
ness  requires  haste,  it  is  wonderful  in  how  short  a  time 
these  couriers  will  perform  long  journeys.  It  should 
be  remembered  that  animals,  pressed  into  the  public 
service  by  post-riders,  are  to  be  paid  for  by  the  Gov 
ernment,  or  commuted  for  taxes,  but  such  settlements 
generally  inure  to  the  benefit  of  a  man's  heirs.  The 
adjustment  requires  about  as  much  time  as  a  suit  in 
English  chancery.  The  history  of  posts,  as  illustrative 
of  Bible  allusions,  is  worthy  of  a  brief  notice.  Diodo- 
rus  Siculus  (book  xix)  tells  us  that  the  Persians,  before 
the  time  of  Cyrus,  that  they  might  have  intelligence  of 
what  was  passing  in  all  the  provinces,  placed  sentinels 
on  high  places  at  convenient  distances,  where  towers 
were  built;  and  that  these  sentinels  gave  notice  of 
public  occurrences  to  one  another,  with  a  very  loud  and 
shrill  voice,  and  that,  by  such  means,  news  was  trans 
mitted  from  one  extremity  of  the  kingdom  to  another. 
The  same  means  are  employed  by  the  savage  tribes  of 
this  continent,  with  the  addition  of  runners,  where  the 
sentinels  are  so  remote  as  not  to  be  able  to  communi 
cate.  It  is  wonderful,  also,  how  far  the  Indian  senti 
nels  can  throw  their  voices,  so  as  to  make  their  shrill 
notes  intelligible  to  their  friends.  The  transmission  of 
intelligence  in  the  wilderness,  in  the  night,  by  the  shrill 
notes  of  the  savage,  from  his  mountain  tower,  to  his  fel 
low  on  the  opposite  peak,  in  sounds  which  even  a  back- 


HISTORY   OP   POSTS.  279 

woodsman  or  mountain  trapper  can  scarcely  distinguish 
from  the  hooting  and  screaming  of  wild  animals,  is  no 
very  agreeable  discovery  to  the  white  man  who  may  be 
encamped  in  the  neighborhood,  as  I  can  testify,  from 
my  own  experience,  in  more  cases  than  one.  But  to 
go  back  again  to  the  Persian  posts.  According  to  Xen- 
ophon  (book  viii)  and  Herodotus  (book  viii)  Cyrus  was 
not  satisfied  with  what  had  been  done  to  transmit  news, 
and  established  the  posts  as  we  have  just  said.  Xerxes, 
according  to  the  same  authorities,  planted  posts,  from 
Shushan,  the  city  of  Esther,  to  the  ^Egean  Sea,  on  his 
famous  expedition  against  the  Greeks,  in  order  that  he 
might  send  notice  to  his  capital  of  whatever  might  hap 
pen  in  his  army.  The  Greeks  borrowed  posts  from  the 
Persians,  and  the  Romans  from  the  Greeks.  It  was 
Augustus  who  first  run  post-chariots  and  horses.  Adrian 
improved  the  posts,  until  the  post-horses  and  chariots 
of  the  Roman  empire  were  nearly  equal  to  those  of  Troy 
or  Concord.  Charlemagne  and  Francis  XI  are  distin 
guished  for  their  efforts  to  improve  the  posts  of  modern 
Europe.  The  first  postmaster  general  that  I  have  been 
able  to  find  any  account  of,  was  Taxis,  in  Germany,  in 
1616,  whose  name  was  quite  a  good  one  for  his  office; 
nor  was  it  in  vain,  for  he  obtained  a  well-lined  patent 
of  the  office  for  his  heirs  for  ever. 

It  is  easily  seen,  therefore,  that  this  part  of  our  story 
is  credible.  Posts  were  established.  The  rapid  trans 
mission  of  intelligence,  from  one  part  of  the  empire  to 
another,  was  as  easily  done  in  those  days  as  it  is  now, 
and  even  more  so.  Accordingly,  the  king's  command 
ment  went  forth  from  the  palace,  with  the  royal  signa 
ture,  and  was  published  unto  all  people,  that  the  Jews, 


280  THE   HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

everywhere,  should  be  ready,  upon  one  and  the  same 
day,  in  which  it  had  before  been  decreed  they  should 
be  put  to  death,  "  that  they  should  gather  themselves 
together,  in  every  city,  to  stand  for  their  life,  to  destroy, 
to  slay,  and  to  cause  to  perish  all  the  power  of  the  peo 
ple  and  province  that  would  assault  them,  both  little 
ones  and  women,  and  to  take  the  spoil  of  them  for  a 
prey."  This  decree  is  as  broad  and  as  long  and  as  deep 
as  the  former  one.  It  was  intended  to  meet  the  for 
mer  one.  And  as  the  former  could  not  be  repealed, 
the  king,  no  doubt,  hoped  to  render  it  unavailing,  by 
making  a  new  one,  just  its  counterpart,  and  when  once 
the  fatal  day  named  in  the  decree  should  be  past,  then 
both  would  fall  to  the  ground.  There  is  no  record  of 
the  women  and  children  having  been  killed.  Nor  is 
there  any  probability  that  such  was  the  fact.  The  coun 
ter  decree  was  intended  to  make  it  lawful  for  the  Jews 
to  fight  fire  with  fire;  and  with  the  hope,  no  doubt,  that 
they  would  save  themselves,  and  prevent  any  slaughter. 
There  is  nothing  uttered  here  as  to  the  right  or  the 
wrong  of  killing  the  women  and  the  little  ones.  If 
there  is  any  body  here  to  be  blamed,  it  is  not  Mordecai, 
nor  the  queen  ;  nor  is  it  to  be  charged  against  our  holy 
books  and  their  authority  from  this  passage,  that  they 
are  cruel  and  blood-thirsty.  Whatever  cruelty  attaches 
to  this  history  is  to  be  laid  to  the  account  of  the  Per 
sian  king  and  court.  All  our  narrative  is  responsible 
for  is  the  correctness  of  the  record.  And  as  this  sec 
ond  decree  was  designed  to  meet  the  first,  so  it  is  its 
exact  counterpart.  It  is  as  broad  and  as  long,  as 
bloody  and  as  irrevocable;  but  not  more  so.  It  was 
intended  to  give  to  the  Jews  the  same  lawful  power  to 


MORDECAI  IN  ROYAL  ROBES.        281 

defend  themselves  that  had  been  given  to  their  enemies 
to  destroy  them.  It  was  and  is  common  in  the  East  to 
make  a  man's  family,  his  children,  and  even  his  cattle, 
suffer  for  his  offenses.  In  the  Iliad,  we  find  Ulysses 
and  Diomed  killing  Dolon  in  the  night  excursion,  on 
account  of  his  father,  and  everywhere,  Homer  and  co- 
temporary  writers,  recognize  the  same  law  of  revenge. 
And  even  in  the  Bible  we  find  such  a  law  carried  out 
in  Achan's*  history,  and  in  the  punishment  of  the  Ca- 
naanites.  And  in  our  own  day  we  see  children  suffer 
ing  on  account  of  the  sins  of  their  parents.  This  is  a 
fact  of  the  streets.  How  will  the  rejector  of  the  Bible 
explain  it  ? 

"  And  Mordecai  went  out  from  the  presence  of  the 
king  in  royal  apparel  of  blue  and  white,  and  with  a 
great  crown  of  gold,  and  with  a  garment  of  fine 
linen  and  purple."  Esth.  viii :  15.  There  is  noth- 
ing  in  this  account  contrary  to  reliable  history.  These 
are  the  colors  and  such  the  usages  that  prevailed 
at  the  time,  and  were  common  with  the  Persian 
kings  and  grandees.  Daniel  (v.  29)  was  honored 
in  a  similar  way  by  Belshazzar.  He  was  invested  with 
the  insignia  of  his  office — with  scarlet  and  a  chain  of 
gold  about  his  neck.  In  the  East,  if  a  person  has  been 
called  into  the  presence  of  a  prince,  and  comes  out  in 
a  garment  different  from  the  one  with  which  he  went 
in,  it  is  always  understood  that  he  has  been  promoted, 
and  is  entitled  to  great  honor.  Jewels  and  gaudy  co 
lors  and  fine  apparel,  are  much  more  highly  valued  in 
the  East  than  they  used  to  be  in  the  West.  The  wealth 
and  distinctions  of  the  Orientals  have  always  consisted 

*  See  my  "  Wedge  of  Gold."     Page  86,  90. 


282  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

in  a  great  degree  of  such  things.  Mordecai  being  now 
prime  minister,  or  Grand  Vizier,  was  invested  with  the 
robes  of  his  office.  The  same  custom  prevailed  in  an 
cient  Egypt,  as  we  learn  both  from  the  Bible  (Exo. 
xxv)  and  from  the  ancient  monuments  ;  and  the  same 
custom  is  still  found  there.  When  a  new  Sheikh 
belief  is  made,  the  Pasha  invests  him  with  the  robes  of 
his  office,  and  this  is  as  good  as  a  proclamation  announ 
cing  his  authority,  and  commanding  all  the  village  to 
obey  and  honor  him. 

Nor  is  the  great  crown  of  gold  any  difficulty  in  our 
way,  for  it  is  admitted  that  the  Persian  Princes  were 
sometimes  crowned — not,  perhaps,  allowed  to  wear  the 
very  same  crown  the  sovereign  used;  but  crowns  like 
unto  it.  And  the  city  of  STiuslian  rejoiced  and  was 
glad,  is  so  natural  a  state  of  things  that,  if  it  had  not 
been  recorded,  we  should  certainly  have  been  author 
ized  to  have  added  such  a  statement  to  our  narrative. 
A  majority  of  the  people  of  the  royal  city  could  never 
have  desired  to  see  their  streets  running  in  blood ;  and 
as  the  city  was  perplexed  at  the  promulgation  of  the 
former  decree  against  the  Jews,  so  it  was  glad  when 
the  counter-decree  was  made  known.  When  the  wicked 
perish,  there  is  shouting ;  when  the  righteous  are  in 
authority,  the  people  rejoice.  They  that  sow  in  tears, 
reap  in  joy;  and  the  more  joy,  the  greater  the  danger 
threatened,  but  escaped.  Surprise  has  been  expressed 
— indeed  it  has  been  urged  as  an  objection  to  our  his 
tory — that,  in  view  of  the  exposition  of  the  nature  of 
this  plot,  any  Persian  was  found  willing  to  attempt  the 
execution  of  the  countermanded  decree.  Doubtless  it 
was  known — at  least  it  might  have  been  known — to  all 


CRUELTY    OP    PERSECUTION.  283 

who  desired  correct  information  on  the  subject,  that  the 
grounds  of  this  edict  were  false  and  malicious — that  its 
author  had  died  in  ignominy  on  the  gallows — that  a 
great  change  had  taken  place  in  the  palace  in  regard  to 
the  Jews;  and  that  it  was  now  with  peril  that  any  one 
should  lift  his  hand  against  one  of  the  seed  of  Abra 
ham  ;  still  he  must  be  blind  to  all  history,  who  does 
not  know  that,  in  all  countries,  and  in  all  ages,  there 
are  those,  and  their  name  is  legion,  who  are  always 
waiting  for  a  time  of  tumult  and  carnage,  to  gratify 
their  own  evil  passions.  It  is  of  no  consequence  to 
them  whether  the  war,  or  the  slaughter,  is  for  a  good 
cause  or  in  a  bad  one — whether  the  innocent  and  help 
less  perish  or  not.  All  they  want  is  an  opportunity 
for  pillage  and  revenge.  Excitement  and  sensual  pleas 
ure  are  more  to  them  than  justice  and  mercy.  Such 
are  found  in  all  our  cities  in  times  of  conflagrations 
and  civil  commotions.  And  again,  he  must  be  a  very 
careless  observer  of  mankind,  who  does  not  see  that 
all  who  live  godly  in  Christ  Jesus  do  suffer  persecution. 
The  seed  of  the  bondwoman  loves  not  the  seed  of  the 
freewoman.  The  carnal  mind  is  at  enmity  with  God, 
and,  of  course,  loves  not  God's  children.  The  church 
of  God  would  cease  to  be  itself,  if  it  were  free,  in  this 
world,  from  all  persecution.  True  Christians  are  the 
sect  everywhere  spoken  against  by  the  self-righteous, 
the  vain  and  the  ungodly.  It  was  a  saying  of  the  good 
Bishop  Hall,  that  God's  people  have  but  three  suits  of 
apparel;  two  of  them  they  wear  on  earth,  and  the 
other  in  heaven.  The  two  they  wear  on  earth  are  the 
black  robes  of  mourning,  or  the  red  robe  of  persecution; 
and  the  'apparel  reserved  for  them  in  their  heavenly 


284  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

wardrobe,  is  white — the  glorious  robe  of  triumph.  Let 
us  then  be  contented  to  make  our  way  to  heaven  as 
Jonathan  and  his  armor-bearer  passed  betwixt  two 
sharp  rocks — and  even  if  the  way  is  so  thorny  and 
sharp  that  we  have  to  pass  along  on  our  hands  and 
knees,  still  we  are  sure  to  come  out  at  last  in  victory  and 
triumph. 

It  is  difficult  to  conceive  of  a  greater  calamity  to  a 
good  man  than  to  be  rendered  useless — to  be  paralyzed 
in  the  midst  of  his  days,  either  by  being  hindered  or 
opposed  by  his  enemies,  or  by  affliction ;  yet  this  is 
sometimes,  and  no  doubt  for  good  and  sufficient  rea 
sons,  a  part  of  God's  plan  of  governing  the  world  at 
present.  To  persecute  a  really  able  and  good  man,  is 
to  do  him  great  service ;  and  to  kill  him  outright,  is  to 
make  him  a  martyr,  and  give  him  horses  and  chariots 
to  ascend  the  skies  to  a  throne  of  glory. 


CHAPTER   XVIII. 

THE    PICTURES    TO    BE    STUDIED. 


"  Few,  but  full  of  understanding,  are  the  books  of  the  library 
of  God, 

And  fitting  for  all  seasons  are  the  gain  and  the  gladness  they 
bestow : 

The  volume  of  mystery  and  GRACE,  for  the  hour  of  deep  com- 
munings, 

When  the  soul  considereth  intensely  the  startling  marvel  of 
itself; 

The  book  of  Destiny  and  Providence  for  the  time  of  sober  study, 

When  the  mind  gleaneth  wisdom  from  the  olive  grove  of  his 
tory." — Tupper. 

11  And  the  two  dragons  are  I  and  Haman.  And  the  nations 
were  there  assembled  to  destroy  the  Jews  ;  and  my  nation  ia 
this  Israel,  which  cried  to  God  and  were  saved — therefore  hath 
He  made  two  lots,  one  for  the  people  of  God,  and  the  other  for 
all  the  Gentiles.  And  these  two  lots  came  at  the  hour,  and 
time,  and  day  of  judgment,  before  God  among  all  nations." — 

Mardocheus1  Dream. 

"Cursed  be  Haman!  Blessed  be  Mordecai !  Cursed  be 
Zeresh  !  Blessed  be  Esther  !  Cursed  be  all  idolaters  !  Bles 
sed  be  all  the  Israelites  !" — Purim  service. 

IT  was  by  studying  the  laws  of  nature  that  Newton 
and  La  Place  made  such  great  discoveries  in  astronomy. 
The  study  of  the  heavenly  bodies  revealed  to  them  the 
great  laws  of  the  planets.  In  the  works  of  God,  even 
in  the  smallest  plant,  there  is  perfect  symmetry  ;  so  in 
the  WORDS  or  GOD,  there  is  the  most  systematic  per- 


286  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN   QUEEN. 

fection,  and  not  only  all,  but  eacli  part  of  the  sacred 
writings  should  be  studied  most  carefully.  The  diction 
of  the  sacred  writers  is  not  like  the  language  of  any 
other  writings ;  it  is  a  language  of  its  own,  but  still  it 
has  a  precise  meaning,  and  that  meaning  is  within  our 
reach.  It  was  a  saying,  and  a  true  one,  of  Origen,  con 
fessedly  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  his  age,  or  of 
any  age,  that  there  was  no  word  nor  phrase  in  the  Holy 
Scriptures  without  its  meaning,  if  they  were  carefully 
studied.  A  modern  writer  says :  "  We  need  not  scruple 
to  affirm,  that  in  precision  of  expression,  in  pure  and  na 
tive  simplicity,  in  delicacy  of  handling,  in  the  grouping 
of  words  and  phrases,  in  dignified  and  majestic  sim 
plicity,  it  has  no  rival  in  the  world.  As  it  is  in  the 
Book  of  Nature,  so  is  it  in  the  pages  of  Holy  writ. 
Both  are  from  the  same  Divine  Hand.  And  if  we 
apply  to  the  language  of  Holy  Scripture,  the  same 
microscopic  process,  which  we  use  in  scrutinizing  the 
beauties  of  the  natural  world,  and  which  reveals  to  us 
exquisite  colors,  and  the  most  graceful  texture  in  the 
petals  of  a  flower,  the  fibres  of  a  plant,  the  plumage  of 
a  bird,  or  the  wings  of  an  insect,  we  shall  discover  new 
sources  of  delight  and  admiration  in  the  least  portions 
of  Holy  Writ." — Dr.  Wordsworth. 

There  is  as  much  system,  plan,  design  and  symmetry, 
in  the  Word  of  God,  as  there  is  in  his  works — as  much 
perfection  in  the  moral  as  in  the  physical  world.  It  is 
for  us,  then,  to  study  the  great  picture  gallery  of  Shu- 
shan,  into  which  we  have  been  introduced  by  the  Di 
vine  Spirit,  the  descriptive  catalogue  of  which  is  the 
Book  of  Esther.  We  have  feasts  and  wine  banquets, 
princes  of  the  empire,  queens,  conspirators  and  ser- 


A   PICTORIAL   GALLERY.  287 

vants,  and  officers — a  murderous  plot  almost  consum 
mated,  but  its  author  exposed  and  hanged,  and  the 
Jew,  Mordecai,  made  Grand  Yizier  in  Hainan's  place, 
and  the  Hebrew  race  so  nearly  cut  off  by  a  wholesale 
simultaneous  murdering  are  saved.  I  wonder  there  is 
not  in  the  Dresden,  Berlin,  Dusseldorf,  Paris  or  Lon 
don  galleries,  a  whole  series  of  historic  paintings,  by 
the  first  masters,  illustrating  the  life  of  the  Hebrew- 
Persian  Queen.  I  know  not  where,  whether  in  fable, 
romance  or  sober  history,  to  find  subjects  more  appro 
priate,  and  more  suitable  for  displaying  artistic  skill. 
There  are  a  few  pictures  of  Esther,  but  her  history  is 
yet  to  be  illustrated.  The  whole  series  of  pictures  as 
described  by  the  sacred  historian  are  in  bold  relief  and 
wonderfully  lifelike.  The  king  of  Persia,  an  aged  man, 
of  strong  passions  and  an  imperious  will — absolute  mon 
arch  of  the  wealth  and  power  of  the  greatest  portion  of 
the  globe;  and  Raman  an  ambitious,  wicked  man,  pros 
pering  for  a  while,  but  then  his  end  was  dreadful ;  and 
the  Hebrew  niaid  that  was  made  queen,  as  modest  and 
pious  as  she  was  beautiful ;  and  Mordecai  the  Jew,  the 
man  of  genuine  principles  and  living  faith.  These  are 
pictures  to  be  studied,  in  the  light  of  Divine  Providence; 
and,  it  seems  to  me,  the  lessons  which  we  "are  here 
taught  are  more  effective — ought  to  make  a  deeper  and 
more  lasting  impression  upon  us,  than  if  they  had  been 
announced  in  dogmatic  terms,  or  embodied  in  phrases 
like  the  Decalogue.  As  we  see  men  and  women  of  like 
passions  with  ourselves — as  we  stand  around  the  Per 
sian's  throne,  or  walk  in  his  gardens,  or  visit  his  feasts, 
or  wonder  at  Hainan's  gallows,  and  Mordecai's  honors — 
so  we  behold  in  the  concurrence  of  such  ordinary  agen- 


288  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

cies — in  their  contrivance  and  in  their  suitableness  for, 
and  in  their  bringing  out  the  desired  results — more  that 
teaches  us  to  fear  to  sin,  and  to  trust  in  God,  and  to 
rely  cheerfully  on  Him  for  support  or  deliverance  in 
the  time  of  distress,  than  if  the  same  result  had  been 
effected  by  a  miracle  like  that  of  the  Red  Sea. 

1.  Although,  then,  as  has  been  already  said,  the 
grand  design  of  this  whole  Book  of  Esther  is  an  illus 
tration  of  a  retributive  Providence  in  working  out  the 
deliverance  of  the  chosen  people ;  still  it  is  better  for 
us  to  note  the  proofs  of  such  a  Providence,  as  they  oc 
cur,  in  detail — even  if,  in  so  doing,  we  fall  into  some 
repetitions.  For  it  is  a  lesson  we  need  to  have  often 
sounded  in  our  ears,  that  there  is  neither  wisdom  nor 
counsel  nor  might  that  can  prevail  against  JEHOVAH. 
It  is  His  rule  that  he  who  digs  a  pit  for  his  neighbor 
is  to  fall  into  it  himself.  The  steps  of  Providence,  in 
the  chapters  now  under  review,  are  as  plainly  to  be 
traced  out  as  they  are  wonderful  to  behold.  We  see 
Mar  decai  advanced,  and  we  see  the  steps  that  have  led  to 
his  advancement.  The  king  could  not  sleep.  His  Magi 
could  not  close  his  eyes  in  sweet  slumbers.  The  margi 
nal  reading  here  is  very  strong  and  proper — The  kino's 
deep  fled  away.  It  fled  away  as  something  frightened 
off,  and  he  could  not  woo  it  back,  for  He  who  "  giveth 
His  beloved  sleep/'  did  not  give  it  to  the  great  king 
Ahasuerus.  Then  the  calling  for  the  records,  and  the 
reading,  from  the  huge  rolls  of  the  Chronicles  of  the 
Persian  Empire,  the  account  of  Mordecai's  unrewarded 
services  in  saving  the  king's  life.  And  then  Hainan's 
burning  impatience  to  get  Mordecai  hanged,  brings 


GOD'S  AGENTS.  289 

him  early  to  court  to  be  commanded  to  honor  him. 
And  then  we  have  been  led  on  until  we  were  almost  in 
despair  at  Hainan's  plotting ;  but,  at  last,  we  have  seen 
him  hanged,  and  the  Jews  saved.  "  Verily,  there  is  a 
reward  for  the  righteous;  verily  He  is  a  God  that 
judgeth  in  the  earth."  Ps.  Iviii:  11. 

2.  We  see  here,  as  well,  indeed,  as  also  in  other  por 
tions  of  sacred  history,  and  as  the  lessons  of  all  history 
and  of  every  day  life  also  demonstrate,  that  God,  in 
the  exercise  of  His  sovereignty,  uses  men  of  very  differ 
ent  characters  as  instruments  for  fulfilling  His  supreme 
purpose.  Both  Esther  and  Ahasuerus — both  Morde- 
cai  and  Hainan,  were  divine  agents  for  bringing  about 
the  Hebrew  deliverance.  God  used  Mordecai  to  work 
out  the  divine  glory,  and  yet  promote  Mordecai's  own 
honor  and  happiness.  And  he  used  Haman  to  work 
out  the  divine  glory,  and,  at  the  same  time,  bring  upon 
himself  dishonor  and  wo.  But  both  Mordecai  and  Ha 
inan  were  free  agents,  and  both  were  dealt  with  accord 
ing  to  the  strictest  justice,  and  in  regard  to  both,  and 
in  every  other  case,  God  is  sovereign.  Peter,  in  speak- L 
ing  of  the  crucifixion  of  Christ,  boldly  asserts  the  same 
things.  It  is  a  part  of  God's  plan,  in  governing  the 
world,  to  employ  agents,  and  to  teach  principles  and 
laws  by  examples.  Every  one  that  knows  the  history 
of  Joseph,  or  of  Moses,  thinks  of  Pharoah.  Daniel  re 
minds  us  of  Nebuchadnezzar :  Paul  of  Nero ;  and  these 
names  are  but  the  concrete  expositions  of  whole  systems 
of  faith  and  Providence.  Moses  and  Pharaoh  illustrate 
the  same  principle  that  we  find  in  Haman  and  Morde 
cai.  But  observe  how  the  great  difference  between 
13 


290  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

their  characters  and  their  destinies  is  respectively  made 
the  cause  or  agent  in  appropriately  bringing  out  the 
final  result.  They  both  worked  out  their  own  destinies. 
Hainan's  blood  was  bad.  His  wife  was  wicked.  His 
own  heart  was  a  festering  sore,  that  sent  corruption 
through  his  whole  frame  ;  so  that,  knowing  his  charac- 
-4  ter,  we  might  foretell  his  fate.  But  look  at  Mordecai, 
standing,  like  a  marble  statue,  when  his  principles  were 
involved,  although  every  one  else  was  bowing  to  the 
royal  favorite.  He  was  distinguished  for  the  grandeur 
of  his  intellect,  the  nobility  of  his  heart,  the  integrity 
of  his  purpose,  and  for  his  unwavering  attachment  to 
his  religious  faith,  and  for  his  abiding  piety.  Nor  were 
these  high  attributes  inconsistent  with  his  care  for  and 
attachment  to  the  lovely  and  gentle  creature  that  had 
ripened  into  womanhood  in  his  home — who  had  been, 
for  many  a  day,  the  one  bright  bird  that  cheered  the 
house  of  his  exile.  No  doubt  it  was  a  trial  to  give  her 
up.  No  wonder  that  he  lingered  around  the  palace 
gates,  hoping  that,  now  and  then,  he  might  get  a 
glimpse  of  her,  or  hear  something  from  her  in  whom 
his  life  and  his  hopes  for  Israel  were  bound  up.  Nor 
is  it  at  all  probable  that  all  was  sunshine  in  his  own 
heart.  Haman  was  younger  in  years,  and,  in  every 
thing,  the  very  reverse  of  himself.  It  is  possible, 
therefore,  that,  at  times,  he  had  fears  of  his  influence 
as  prime  minister  and  court  favorite  over  the  young- 
queen.  He  was  a  man  of  like  passions  with  ourselves, 
and  had  his  fears  and  trials,  his  joys  and  sorrows;  but 
he  suffered  and  toiled,  believed  and  hoped,  and  pre 
vailed.  So,  by  God's  help,  let  us  all  try  to  do.  Mor 
decai  was  a  man  precisely  such  as  you  are,  and  if  he 


HOW    TO    CONSTRUCT    CHARACTER.  291 

was  a  greater  and  a  better  man,  it  was1  by  God's  help, 
whose  grace  is  as  truly  and  as  freely  offered  to  you  as 
it  was  to  him. 

3.  These  pictures  show  us  that  we  are  to  construct 
men's  reputation  for  character  out  of  their  whole- life 
and  principles,  and  not  from  any  one  moment,  nor  from 
any  word  or  act  Our  laws  do  not,  indeed,  allow  us  to 
condemn  a  man  unheard,  because  he  may  be  every 
where  spoken  against.  No  amount  of  public  clamor 
can  be  received  as  evidence  on  which  to  convict  a  man. 
The  crime  must  be  distinctly  stated,  the  counts  of  the 
indictment  and  the  witnesses  named,  and  the  specific 
charges  must  be  sustained,  and  all  this  must  be  done 
according  to  law  and  in  a  constitutional  court.  All  this 
is  true,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  hard  rule  to 
make  a  man  an  offender  for  a  word.  A  man's  general 
character  ought  certainly  to  be  taken  into  the  account 
in  forming  a  judgment  upon  his  actions.  Cicero  has 
well  said,  that  "  in  every  case,  oh  judges,  we  must 
judge  a  good  deal  as  to  what  every  one  has  wished,  or 
intended,  or  done,  not  from  the  counts  of  the  indict 
ment,  but  from  the  habits  of  the  person  who  is  accused. 
For  no  one  of  us  can  have  our  character  modelled  in  a 
moment,  nor  can  any  one's  course  of  life  be  altered,  or 
his  natural  disposition  changed  on  a  sudden."  And, 
from  this  position,  he  argued  that  Catalme,  in  the  judg 
ment  of  all  good  men,  was  born  for  civil  war,  and  died 
at  the  hands  of  justice,  fighting  against  his  country, 
just  as  his  whole  life  had  given  evidence  of  his  bad 
character.  Whose  ears,  asks  he,  could  have  believed 
anything  else  of  him,  since  he  had  spent  his  whole  life, 

ISA 


292  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

from  his  boyhood  upwards,  not  only  in  intemperance 
and  debauchery,  but  had  devoted  all  his  energies  and 
all  his  zeal  to  every  sort  of  enormity,  lust  and  blood 
shed  ?  And  I  am  fully  persuaded,  also,  that  the  records 
of  our  police  and  criminal  courts  will  show,  as  the  Ro 
man  orator  said,  that  their  subjects  are,  generally,  men 
convicted  by  their  manner  of  life,  before  they  were  con 
demned  by  legal  trial.  Audacious,  violent,  licentious, 
intemperate,  profligate,  and  fond  of  bad  company, 
and,  by  such  a  course,  they  have  come,  at  last,  to  expo 
sure,  public  shame,  and,  it  may  be,  to  the  gallows.* 
In  the  pictures  of  our  tableau,  then,  we  have  not  the 
result  of  a  mere  momentary  daub  of  an  artist.  We  have 
just  what  the  artists  have  themselves  been  making  all 
their  lives  long,  up  to  this  moment.  Influences,  un 
conscious  as  well  as  designed,  known  and  unknown, 
have  been  unceasingly  at  work,  and  here  we  have  the 
result.  This  is  true  of  the  king  on  the  throne,  of  the 
sultana  with  the  crown  royal  on  her  head,  and  of  Ha- 
man,  the  prime  minister,  and  of  Mordecai,  the  inflexi 
ble  Hebrew. 

4.  We  are  here  taught  to  feel  the  deepest  interest  in 
the  welfare  of  our  fellow  men,  especially  of  those  who 
may  be  associated  with  us,  or  be  bound  to  us  by  social 
ties,  or  by  blood  and  nationality.  The  Romans  had  a 
good  saying,  to  this  effect :  "  Omnibus  bcne  velle,  et 
quam  plurimis  possit  benefacere — There  is  nothing 
more  divine  in  man  than  to  wish  well  to  all  men,  and 
to  do  good  to  as  many  as  we  possibly  can." 

It  was  not  enough — it  should  not — it  did  not  satisfy 


*  For  the  original,  which  is  exceedingly  strong  and  beautiful,  see  Oratio 
pro  P.  Sulla.    Cap.  xxv,  passim. 


ANXIETY    FOR    FRIENDS.  293 

Esther  that  "  the  Jews'  enemy,"  "  the  wicked  Haman," 
was  dead,  and  her  kinsman  advanced  next  to  the  king, 
and  she  herself  safe  and  more  honored  and  beloved 
than  ever.  This  is  all  well,  but  still,  while  the  bloody 
decree  of  Hainan  was  unrepealed,  and  the  fatal  day 
hastening  on,  she  could  not  rest.  The  murderous  de 
cree  was,  indeed,  surreptitiously  obtained — gotten  un 
der  false  pretences  and  rashly  given ;  but  still,  accord 
ing  to  law  and  usage,  it  cannot  be  repealed.  The  only 
relief,  then,  was  to  issue  another  of  such  a  nature  as  to 
countermand  the  first  one — such  as  will,  probably,  pre 
vent  all  attempts  to  execute  the  first  one  on  the  day 
fixed,  and  thus  render  it  null  and  void.  If  a  Persian 
law  cannot  be  reversed,  it  may  be  counterchecked  j  that 
is,  if  Mordecai,  with  the  king's  ring  and  seal,  cannot 
write  in  the  king's  name,  "  Let  no  Jew  be  killed,"  he 
can,  however,  write  in  the  king's  name,  "  Let  all  Jews  > 
arm  themselves  and  meet,  in  battle  array,  at  the  ap 
pointed  time,  and  stand,  for  their  lives,  against  those 
that  would  slay  them."  And  this  decree,  as  broad  and 
as  long  and  as  emphatic  as  the  former,  flies  after  the 
first  so  fast  that  it  overtakes  it,  or  reaches  the  most 
distant  provinces,  in  time  for  the  defense  of  the  Jews. 
There  was  a  wonderfully  wise  and  gracious  Providence 
in  this  counter-decree.  For  there  are  some  who  are 
held  in  subjection  to  the  right  only  by  their  own  con 
science  ;  and  some  are  awed  more  by  the  example  and 
countenance  of  those  that  are  high  in  authority ;  and 
others  are  restrained  from  evil-doing  only  by  the  ter 
rors  of  the  law.  It  is  an  advantage  to  society  and  to 
the  individuals  themselves  to  be  restrained  from  vice 
by  any  or  all  of  these  barriers ;  but  it  is  better  still  to 


294  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

keep  from  evil,  out  of  an  enlightened  fear  of  God  and 
with  a  regard  for  His  will,  and  love  for  the  right  way. 
The  fear  of  the  Lord  is  the  best  guarantee  a  young  man 
can  possibly  have  against  doing  anything  dishonorable 
and  vicious.  Sin  is  the  only  thing  in  the  universe  to 
be  afraid  of.  Where  there  is  no  sin  in  the  heart  the 
devil  himself  is  no  more  than  a  scarecrow. 

5.  I  am  perfectly  sure  that  in  the  lives  of  the  men 
and  women  as  illustrated  in  the  sacred  writings,  we  are 
taught  the  mind  of  God  himself,  as  to  the  precepts  and 
principles  which  are  agreeable  to  Him ;  and  that  it  is 
in  the  teachings  of  the  WORD  OF  GOD,  and  in  it  alone, 
that  we  can  find  the  true  principles  of  all  proper  re 
forms.  It  is  in  the  Bible,  and  in  the  Bible  alone,  we 
have  the  principles  of  happiness — the  only  true  princi 
ples  of  reformation.  Human  philosophy  has  attempted 
to  be  wiser  than  God  in  many  ways ;  but  the  many  in 
ventions  of  mankind,  by  which  they  have  sought  to 
produce  needful  reforms,  have  failed  ;  nor  can  they  ever 
succeed.  They  do  not  begin  at  the  right  place.  They 
do  not. put  forth  the  right  principles.  They  daub  with 
untempercd  mortar.  They  cry  peace,  peace,  when 
there  is  no  peace.  No  reformation  is  deep  enough  or 
abiding,  that  does  not  comprehend  a  heart  renewed  and 
at  peace  with  God.  The  Church  of  God  is,  therefore, 
the  divinely  constituted  teacher  and  Reformer  of  the 
world.  It  is  God's  teaching  Institute,  and  is  perfect  of 
itself  for  its  work.  It  is  the  Church — the  body  of 
Christ's  people  as  such,  and  not  the  State,  that  has  re 
ceived  the  commandment  to  preach  the  Gospel  to  every 
creature.  And  it  is  this  glorious  Gospel  of  the  Blessed 


THE    ONLY   REFORMER.  295 

God,  and  it  alone,  that  can  purify  and  save  mankind. 
There  is  in  it  a  power  to  transform  the  moral  character 
— a  power  that  belongs  to  no  other  code,  system  or 
book,  on  earth.  Conventional  rules,  society  regulations, 
like  the  laws  of  a  mutual  insurance  company,  and  leg- 
•  islative  enactments,  are  mere  temporary  remedies.  They 
do  not  renew  the  heart ;  they  do  not  take  away  the  love 
of  sinning ;  nor  implant  a  hungering  and  thirsting 
after  holiness.  But  the  Gospel  works  from  the  depths 
of  the  heart  outward.  It  leavens  the  whole  lump.  It 
operates  as  a  dynamical  spirit  upon  the  whole  mass  of 
society,  by  sanctifying  the  individuals  that  compose  it. 
It  embraces  everything  •  but  is  not  anything  else  than 
itself.  Its  individuality  is  as  immutable  as  its  fruits. 
In  all  the  faculties  and  functions  of  man,  it  operates  as 
the  air  we  breathe,  and  yet  remains  separate  and  pure 
and  powerful,  as  if  it  had  not  exerted  itself  upon  the 
body.  It  is  the  keen  blade  of  the  sword  of  the  Spirit, 
that  can  reach  the  deep  and  dark  recesses  of  the  heart, 
and  probe  it  to  the  core,  and  make  a  new  affection  expel 
the  old,  and  thus  purify  the  fountain,  and  make  the 
stream  sweet.-  The  Gospel  is  the  mighty  power  of  God, 
not  only  unto  salvation  unto  all  that  believe,  but  also, 
and  in  order  to  salvation,  it  changes  the  lion  into  the 
lamb — makes  the  drunkard  sober — the  profane  pure, 
and  the  thief  honest.  The  Gospel  of  Christ  is  the  only 
true  and  radical  .eformer.  Nor  has  any  people  greater 
interests  at  stake,  or  in  any  way  more  deeply  involved 
in  the  correct  understanding  of  this  subject  than  we 
ourselves.  For  the  more  our  commerce  extends  over 
the  world,  the  wider  our  field  of  labor  and  trade ;  and 
the  more  complicated  the  machinery  of  society,  the 


296  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

more  are  we  in  need  of  an  enlightened  conscience.  No 
men  are  more  interested  in  the  conscience  of  a  commu 
nity  than  merchants.  They  live  on  confidence  and 
credit.  If  man's  confidence  in  man  is  destroyed,  you 
take  away  the  foundations  of  our  warehouses,  and  may 
turn  our  banks  into  carpenters'  shops.  But  what  safe 
guard  is  there  for  the  preservation  of  a  good  conscience, 
like  the  fear  of  God  ?  Given  young  men  for  the  com 
mand  of  your  ships,  or  to  act  as  supercargoes,  or  corres 
pondents  and  agents,  and  confidential  clerks,  whose 
consciences  are  enlightened  by  the  word  and  spirit  of 
God,  and  who  therefore  fear  to  sin  against  him,  and  who 
cannot  act  dishonestly,  because  it  is  a  sin  against  God, 
and  you  have  the  best  possible  guarantee  that  your 
business  wTill  be  well  and  satisfactorily  done. 

Did  you  ever  think,  my  friends,  what  it  is  that  makes 
the  rose  or  the  violet  so  fragrant  ?  The  delicate  scent, 
is  it  from  the  root  ?  The  root  smells  of  nothing  unless 
it  is  of  earth.  Nor  from  the  stalk,  that  has  no  more 
fragrance  than  the  root.  Nor  does  this  delicate  scent 
belong  to  the  ground,  for  out  of  the  same  ground  may 
grow  grass  and  weeds.  Nor  is  it  from  the  leaf,  nor 
from  the  bud,  for  before  the  bud  is  opened  there  is 
none  of  this  precious  fragrance;  but  now,  in  the  ex 
panded  flower  it  is  here.  Nor  is  this  a  miracle;  for  all 
violets  and  roses  yield  the  same  fragrance.  It  is  true, 
the  fragrance  was  potentially  in  the  root  and  stem,  in 
the  ground  and  air,  and  that  the  Almighty  has  given 
the  several  virtues  of  plants  to  them,  and  draws  them 
out  at  their  season.  And  is  it  not  just  so  with  chris- 
tians  ?  It  is  out  of  the  renewed  soil  of  a  heart  turned 
to  the  Lord,  watered  with  the  dew  of  heaven,  and 


THE    WAY    TO    BE    HAPPY.  297 

warmed  with  the  beams  of  the  Eternal  Spirit,  that  the 
sweet  odors  of  grace  are  brought  forth.  And  if  the 
worm  eats  the  flower,  it  is  when  it  is  wrapt  up,  when 
it  is  not  sending  out  its  fragrance.  And  does  not  this 
teach  us  that  selfishness  is  the  bane  of  our  happiness? 
And  does  not  this  illustration  teach  us  to  give  God  the 
glory,  even  for  our  amiable  instincts  and  commercial  in 
tegrity  ?  for  every  good  and  every  perfect  gift  cometh 
from  above ;  and  especially  to  exalt  his  grace,  which  is 
above  all,  and  which  cometh  only  through  his  Son, 
Jesus  Christ.  To  be  happy,  we  must  learn  to  know 
the  luxury  of  doing  good. 

The  sun  gives  ever;  so  the  earth —         ^ 
What  it  can  give,  so  much  'tis  worth  ; 
The  ocean  gives  in  many  ways — 
Gives  paths,  gives  fishes,  rivers,  bays  ; 
So,  too,  the  air,  it  gives  us  breath — 
When  it  stops  giving,  comes  in  death. 

Give,  give,  be  always  giving  ; 

Who  gives  not,  is  not  living. 
The  more  you  give 
The  more  you  live. 

God's  love  hath  in  us  wealth  upheaped  ; 

Only  by  giving  is  it  reaped. 

The  body  withers,  and  the  mind, 

If  pent  in  by  a  selfish  rind. 

Give  strength,  give  thought,  give  deeds,  give  pelf, 

Give  love,  give  tears,  and  give  thyself. 

Give,  give,  be  always  giving ; 

Who  gives  not,  is  not  living. 
The  more  we  give, 
The  more  we  live. 

6.  We  see  here  how  great  a  blessing  we  enjoy  in  having 
mild)  equitable,  salutary  laws,  and  in  having  a  written 
Constitution ,  that  provides  for  its  amendment,  and 

13n 


298  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

points  out  the  way  for  the  repeal  or  alteration  of  any 
laws  that  may  be  made  in  haste,  or  in  ignorance,  or 
through  party  zeal,  that  are  found  to  be  unconstitutional 
and  not  for  the  good  of  the  people.  No  people  under 
heaven  are  under  greater  moral  obligations  to  abide  by 
their  laws  than  the  people  of  the  United  States,  and, 
consequently,  the  guilt  of  lawlessness  among  us  is  very 
heavy.  I  see  no  possible  excuse  for  disobeying  our 
laws.  And  the  sin  of  so  doing  is  a  sin  not  only  against 
our  country  but  against  God,  and  is  enhanced  in  enor 
mity  by  the  general  mildness  and  excellence  of  our 
laws,  and  the  fact  that  obnoxious  laws  may  be  repealed, 
or  redress  had  without  resorting  to  violence.  The 
boasted  perfection  of  Persian  law  was  blasphemous ; 
for  it  is  a  prerogative  of  God  alone  to  be  perfect  and 
never  to  repent.  It  is  human  to  err,  and  godlike  to 
forgive.  And  it  is  also  an  evidence  of  God's  goodness 
to  us  to  open  our  eyes  when  we  have  erred,  and  enable 
us  to  correct  our  errors.  Though  the  first  decree  of 
Ahasuerus  was  beyond  repeal,  the  second  decree  im 
plied  the  revocation  of  the  first — though  that  revoca 
tion  was  only  implied.  It  was  not  expressed  in  words. 
Our  Government  is,  happily,  altogether  of  a  different 
kind  from  that  of  Persia.  We  are  a  free  Representa- 
tative  Republic.  And  the  more  free  we  are  from  com 
pulsory  laws,  the  more  necessary  is  it  that  we  should 
be  pious  from  choice.  Whatever  may  be  true  of  other 
nations,  with  us  Liberty  and  a  pure  Christianity  are 
inseparable.  As  De  Tocqueville  has  well  said  :  "  Des 
potism  may  govern  without  religion,  but  liberty  can 
not."  Religion  is  much  more  necessary  in  a  Republic 
than  in  any  other  government.  How  is  it  possible  for 


AGAINST   LYNCH   LAW.  299 

society  to  escape  destruction,  if  the  moral  tie  be  not 
strengthened  in  proportion  as  the  political  tie  is  re 
laxed  ?  The  people  who  are  sovereign  are  their  own 
master  •  what  will  they  not  do,  if  they  are  not  bound 
by  religious  obligations  ?  "  Not  only  in  theory,  but  in 
fact  a  republican  government  must  be  administered  by 
the  people  themselves.  They,  and  they  alone,  must 
execute  the  laws.  And  hence  the  first  principle  in 
such  governments,  that  on  which  all  others  depend, 
and  without  which  no  other  can  exist,  is  and  must  be, 
obedience  to  the  existing  laws,  at  all  times  and  under 
all  circumstances.  This  is  the  vital  condition  of  the 
social  compact.  He  who  claims  a  dispensing  power  for 
himself,  by  which  he  suspends  the  operation  of  law  in 
his  own  case,  is  worse  than  a  usurper,  for  he  not  only 
tramples  under  foot  the  Constitution  of  his  country, 
but  violates  the  reciprocal  pledge  which  he  has  given 
to  his  fellow  citizens,  and  has  received  from  them,  that 
he  will  abide  by  the  laws,  constitutionally  enacted ; 
upon  the  strength  of  which  pledge,  his  own  personal 
rights  and  acquisitions  are  protected  by  the  rest  of  the 
community."* 

7.  The  difficulties  of  the  Persian  monarch,  growing 
out  of  his  rash  decree,  even  after  the  author  of  it  has 
been  punished,  are  a  warning  to  us  to  beware  of  the 
consequences  of  our  words  and  actions.  The  only  re 
lief  from  the  evils  of  his  rash  decree,  that  seemed  to  the 
king  available,  was  to  put  the  Jews  on  an  equal  footing 
with  their  enemies.  The  author — the  base  contriver  of 
this  murderous  plot,  has  received  his  just  desert,  but 

*  This  is  from  a  note  by  the  American  editor  of  De  Tocqueville's  Democ 
racy  in  America,  p.  4i8. 


300  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

the  consequences  of  his  wicked  contriving  have  not 
been  arrested.  And  it  is  so  still,  the  evil  as  well  as  the 
good  that  men  do  live  after  them.  Their  wickedness 
survives  when  they  have  gone.  The  rich  man  in  the 
parable  feared  to  meet  the  consequences  of  his  evil  prin 
ciples  and  bad  example  in  the  perdition  of  his  breth 
ren,  and  feared  that  their  accusations  against  him  for 
having  led  them  to  do  wrong,  would  increase  his  own 
misery.  And  so  it  is  with  the  writers  of  bad  books. 
They  publish  thereby  a  law  that  works  evil  and  nothing 
but  mischief.  They  sow  broadcast  over  the  land  evil 
seed,  that  grows  and  ripens,  and  reproduces  itself, 
waning  in  successive  harvests,  it  may  be  to  the  end  of 
the  world.  And  even  if  the  author  of  a  bad  book 
should  himself  be  saved  as  a  brand  plucked  from  the 
burning  gulf — snatched  by  sovereign  grace  at  the  last 
moment  from  its  flaming  jaws — still  his  work  survives ; 
the  poison  he  has  injected  into  the  mass  of  society 
spreads  on  and  works  death.  It  has  past  beyond  his 
control.  Our  influence  is  immortal. 

8.  This  history  teaches  us  to  trust  in  God  for  the 
vindication  of  his  own  ways  and  the  justification  of 
his  judgments  against  the  wicked,  as  well  as  in  his  faith 
fulness  to  his  people,  in  remembering  to  keep  and  fulfill, 
at  the  right  time,  all  his  promises  to  them.  There  may 
be  more  love  in  what  we  think  his  frown,  than  there 
could  be  in  his  smile.  As  many  as  I  love,  says  God, 
I  rebuke  and  chasten.  Let  us  remember,  also,  that  He 
who  "  tempers  the  wind  to  the  shorn  lamb,"  tempers 
his  chastisements  to  the  infirmities  of  a  weak  and  sim 
ple  mind — while  the  transgressions  of  him  whose  na- 


SIN    A   TRANSGRESSION.  301 

ture  is  strongly  marked,  are  visited  by  severer  tokens 
of  divine  displeasure.  The  mind  and  tlie  heart  are 
closely  linked  together,  and  the  errors  of  genius  bear 
with  them  their  own  chastisement,  even  upon  earth. 
The  man  of  a  weak  mind  and  imperfect  education  sees 
God  dimly  and  through  many  shadows;  but  the  sinner 
of  genius  and  talent  and  moral  education,  sins  in  "  the 
broad  noonday  of  a  clear  and  radiant  mind,  and  when 
at  length  the  delirium  of  sensual  passion  has  subsided, 
and  the  cloud  flits  away  from  before  the  sun,  he  trem 
bles  beneath  the  searching  eye  of  that  accusing  power 
which  is  strong  in  the  strength  of  a  godlike  intellect." 
It  is  then  a  law  of  Providence,  that  where  much  is 
given,  much  is  required ;  and  also,  that  where  much  is 
given  and  abused,  there  the  guilt  is  great,  and  the  in 
jury  of  evil  doing  is  in  proportion  to  the  violence 
that  it  offers  public  sentiment,  and  to  the  violence  that 
it  does  to  one's  own  conscience.  "  Men,"  says  De 
Tocqueville,  "  are  not  corrupted  by  the  exercise  of  a 
power  or  debased  by  the  habit  of  obedience;  but  by 
the  exercise  of  power  which  they  believe  to  be  illegal, 
and  by  obedience  to  a  rule  which  they  consider  to  be 
usurped  and  oppressive."  It  is  the  violence  then  done 
to  conscience,  and  to  public  sentiment,  and  to  the  law 
of  God,  that  destroys  self-respect,  and  leads  to  utter 
depravity.  Sin  is  a  fearful  transgression  of  law. 

9.  The  delay  of  judgment  against  evil-doers,  instead, 
therefore,  of  encouraging  them  to  boldness  in  sin,  should 
melt  them  to  penitential  sorrow.  Instead  of  lulling 
them  into  security,  it  ought  the  more  to  alarm  them : 
For,  first,  the  delay  of  Providence  to  punish  the  wicked 


302  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

does  not  change  the  nature  of  sin.  It  remains  in 
trinsically  the  abominable  thing  that  God  hates.  It  is 
impossible,  in  the  nature  of  things,  that  sin  should  ever 
meet  with  His  approbation.  The  patience  of  God, 
therefore,  produces  no  mitigation  of  the  enormity 
of  wrong  doing.  It  is  no  proof  of  Divine  indifference 
to  sin — or  of  its  being  a  trifling  offense  in  the  sight  of 
God,  that  He  does  not  instantly  express  His  abhorrence 
of  it,  and  pour  out  His  wrath  upon  the  guilty.  Men 
kindle  immediately  into  a  transport  of  passion,  when 
provoked.  But  dod  is  not  a  man.  He  punishes  sin 
not  from  passion,  but  from  principle — not  to  revenge 
Himself  for  any  injury  He  sustains  from,  sin,  but  in 
order  to  maintain  a  righteous  government  for  the  hap 
piness  of  His  creatures.  And  the  punishment  of  sin 
will  only  be  the  more  severe,  because  of  the  aggrava 
tions  of  abused  mercy.  Delay  amongst  men  may  lessen 
the  certainty  of  punishment,  leaving  room  for  escape, 
or  for  the  loss  of  opportunity,  or  of  ability  for  inflict 
ing  the  punishment;  but  it  is  never  so  with  God.  One. 
day  is,  with  the  Lord,  as  a  thousand  years,  and  a  thou 
sand  years  as  one  day.  Is  there  not  then  something 
fearful  in  treasuring  up  wrath  against  the  day  of 
wrath,  by  an  abuse  of  Divine  goodness  ? 

But,  secondly ',  an  evil  work  is  itself  a  judgment. 
It  was  so  with  Hainan.  He  was  allowed  to  go  on  his 
own  way,  until  he  fulfilled  the  Psalmist's  words  :  "  He 
made  a  pit,  and  digged  it,  and  is  fallen  into  the  ditch 
which  he  made;  his  mischief  shall  return  upon  his 
own  head;  and  his  violent  dealing  shall  come  down 
upon  his  own  pate."  His  whole  history  shows  that 
pride  goeth  before  destruction,  and  a  haughty  spirit  be- 


HAMAN'S  GREEDINESS.  303 

fore  a  fall — that  God  can  easily  so  direct  human  affairs 
as  to  thwart  the  best  laid  schemes  of  wicked  men.  If, 
at  Mordecai's  refusal  to  bow  before  him  as  to  a  god, 
Hainan  swells  with  rage,  and  says  to  himself :  "  Well, 
he  will  not  bow  his  knees — I  will  see  if  a  halter  cannot 
break  his  neck;"  and  if,  as  he  plans  for  this,  his  mal 
ice,  and  envy,  and  rage,  grow  by  what  they  feed  on, 
until  he  will  not  stoop  to  be  revenged  on  Mordecai 
alone;  if  he  will  not  rest  until,  like  the  Egyptian  kings 
portrayed  on  the  old  palace  walls  of  the  Nile,  he  can 
hold  the  hair  of  all  Jewish  heads  in  one  hand,  and  by 
one  stroke  of  the  king's  sword,  cut  them  all  off  at  once; 
if  one  lark  is  not  enough  for  the  stomach  of  this  Ama- 
lekite,  but,  like  a  vulture,  he  would  have  the  whole 
flock,  why  then  we  have  only  to  wait  for  the  sequel, 
and  we  shall  see  who  prevails.  For  it  was  not  against 
Mordecai  alone,  nor  merely  against  Mordecai  and  the 
Jews  that  this  heathen  Agagite  was  raging.  His  heart 
was  set  against  God's  chosen  people,  and  against  Jeho 
vah  himself.  It  is  no  wonder  then,  that,  contrary  to 
all  human  appearances,  his  plans  miscarried,  and  the 
Jews  were  saved.  For  who  hath  ever  hardened  him 
self  against  the  Almighty  and  prospered  ?  Is  lie  not 
as  wonderful  in  execution  as  in  council  ?  Let  the  pot 
sherds  of  the  earth  strive  with  the  potsherds  of  the 
earth ;  but  wo  to  a  man  that  striveth  with  his  Maker ! 
Who  shall  deliver  us  from  His  wrath? 

The  delay  of  the  execution  of  the  sentence  against 
evil-doers,  is  not,  in  itself,  a  blessing,  if  it  does  not 
lead  to  repentance.  It  were  a  mercy  to  arrest  them, 
and  so  prevent  their  increase  of  guilt.  A  thing  is  not 
good  because  it  prospers,  but  because  it  is 'according  to 


304  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

the  will  of  God — because  it  is  commanded  by  him. 
An  act  is  not  evil  because  it  is  punished  at  once,  but 
because  it  is  disobedience — because  it  is  forbidden. 
The  act — the  sin  itself — is  a  judgment  upon  the  sinner. 
He  that  bclieveth  not,  is  condemned  already,  and  his 
continuance  in  unbelief  and  disobedience,  against  the 
offers  of  pardon  and  calls  of  grace,  only  enhances  his 
condemnation.  The  tyranny  of  Hainan's  evil  passions, 
instead  of  growing  less  by  the  opposition  he  met  with, 
only  became  more  and  more  violent.  His  revenge  be 
came  a  scorpion  that  could  not  rest.  His  heart  was  so 
filled  with  pride  and  envy,  that  no  scheme  was  too  cruel 
or  bloody  for  him.  But  it  is  always,  as  it  was  with 
him,  such  wicked  passions  indulged  are  more  injurious 
to  those  who  allow  them  to  govern  them,  than  they  are 
to  the  victims  upon  whom  they  are  expended.  It  is 
better  to  receive  and  endure  an  injury,  than  to  inflict 
one.  Oh  how  dangerous  is  ambition  in  a  narrow  minded, 
ill-informed,  headstrong  man  on  the  pinnacle  of  earthly 
grandeur!  Seest  thou  a  man  wise  in  his  own  conceit, 
there  is  more  hope  of  a  fool  than  e£  him?  If  he 
be  brayed  in  a  mortar,  he  is  still  a  fool.  Prov.  xxvii. 
How  impossible  is  it  for  a  man  to  have  the  spirit  of 
Christ  who  is  filled  with  malice  and  anger,  and  evil- 
speaking,  and  backbiting,  and  slander  ?  How  earnestly 
ought  we  to  pray  to  be  delivered  from  violent  passions, 
and  from  unreasonable  men ;  and  how  thankful  should 
we  be  when  God  restrains  us  from  the  indulgence  of 
wicked  propensities  ? 

But  what  if  we  have  fallen  ;  what  if  we  are  sinners  ? 
Is  there  no  hope  for  us  ?  0  Israel,  thou  hast  destroyed 
thyself,  saith  the  Lord,  but  in  me  is  thy  help.  There 


CAN  YOU  RUB  THEM  OUT?         305 

is  forgiveness  with  God,  not  that  we  may  go  on  in  sin, 
but  that  He  may  be  feared.  Christ  Jesus  is  exalted 
at  His  right  hand;  a  Prince  and  a  Saviour,  to  give 
repentance  and  remission  of  sins.  I  remember  having 
read  something  like  the  following,  in  regard  to  a  little 
boy,  a  white-haired  lad  of  some  six  years  of  age.  His 
mother  was  sick,  and  the  little  fellow  left  his  playthings 
in  the  yard  to  stay  with  his  mother,  and  in  trying  to 
amuse  himself  in  her  sick  chamber,  without  making  a 
noise,  he  employed  himself  sometime  in  painting  his 
name,  with  a  pencil,  on  paper.  But  suddenly  his  busy 
little  finger  stopped.  He  had  made  a  mistake,  and 
wetting  his  finger,  he  tried  again  and  again  to  rub  out 
the  wrong  mark,  as  he  had  been  accustomed  to  do  on 
his  slate;  but  in  vain.  His  mother  having  observed 
his  distress,  and  his  useless  efforts,  said :  "  My  son,  do 
you  know  that  God  writes  down  all  you  do  in  a  book  ? 
Every  naughty  word  and  wicked  thought — all  your  acts 
of  wickedness,  peevishness  and  disobedience  ?  And 
do  you  suppose,  my  boy,  you  can  ever  rub  out  these 
marks  against  you?"  His  face  grew  red,  and  then 
pale.  He  was  evidently  much  agitated  with  thoughts 
about  his  standing  in  the  sight  of  God.  His  mother 
observed  him  affectionately,  but  said  nothing.  At  last 
he  came  to  her  bedside  and  said,  with  great  earnest 
ness  :  "  Dear  mother,  can  not  the  blood  of  Jesus  Christ 
rub  them  out?"  Yes,  dear  boy,  you  have  the  secret 
now.  A  secret  the  whole  world  cannot  give  you  with 
out  the  Gospel:  The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  deanseth  us 
from  all  sin. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 


THE    DAY    OF    SLAUGHTER. 


"  Thus  the  Jews  smote  all  their  enemies  with  the  stroke  of 
the  sword,  and  slaughter,  and  destruction,  and  did  what  they 
would  unto  those  that  hated  them." 

Esther  is.:  5. 

"  Just  in  the  last  distressing  hour 
The  LORD  displays  delivering  power, 

.    The  mount  of  danger  is  the  place, 
Where  we  shall  see  surprising  grace." 

Watts. 

As  the  history  now  before  us  opens  up,  we  find  two 
royal  edicts,  just  the  counterpart  of  each  other,  left  to 
war  it  out.  Neither  side  are  rebels,  for  both  are  to 
fight  under  royal  authority.  And  since  it  must  be  so, 
may  Grod  protect  the  right. 

We  have  found  Hainan  hanging  on  the  gallows  which 
he  built  for  Mordccai,  and  Mordecai  coming  into  the 
possession  of  the  honors,  power  and  estates  of  Hainan. 
And  the  queen  undisputed  mistress  of  the  king's  heart; 
but  the  decree  of  extermination,  against  the  Jews,  can 
not  be  reversed.  It  can  only  be  met  by  a  counter-one, 
which  it  is  hoped  will  practically  render  it  null  and 
void.  Accordingly,  two  months  after  the  first,  and 


308  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

nine  months  before  the  time  fixed  for  the  execution  of 
the  first  edict,  the  second  one  is  issued,  and  expressed 
by  the  swiftest  couriers  throughout  all  the  kingdom. 
Josephus,  in  his  antiquities,  (lib.  xi:  c.  6,)  gives  the 
words  of  the  decree,  which  corroborate  the  truth  of  our 
text.  But,  contrary  to  the  hopes  of  the  Jews,  and  of  the 
king  and  court,  the  day  does  not  pass  quietly.  It  is 
made,  in  spite  of  their  wishes,  a  day  of  terrible  ven 
geance.  The  Jews  act  strictly  on  the  defensive.  To 
lay  hand  on  such,  and  on  such  only,  as  sought  their  hurt. 
And  no  man  could  withstand  them:  for  the  fear  of 
them  fell  upon  all  people.  The  cause  of  this  fear  is 
easily  seen.  The  Jews  had  powerful  friends  at  court. 
The  king  was  on  their  side.  The  queen,  being  of  their 
own  blood,  was,  of  course,  on  their  side.  And,  no 
doubt  also,  the  more  intelligent  among  the  Persians 
were  now  acquainted  with  the  most  remarkable  portions 
of  Jewish  history,  and  knew  how  their  God  had  helped 
them  in  days  of  old.  And  then  there  was  a  prestige — 
a  moral — with  the  Hebrews  that  made  them  all-power 
ful.  According  to  the  king's  commandment  and  de 
cree,  on  the  thirteenth  day  of  the  twelfth  month,  which 
is  Adar,  the  day  that  the  enemies  of  the  Jews  hoped 
to  have  power  over  them,  though  it  was  turned  to  the 
contrary,  and  the  Jews  everywhere  prevailed  over  their 
enemies  :  On  this  day,  the  Jews  gathered  themselves 
together  in  their  cities,  throughout  all  the  provinces  of 
king  Ahasuerus,  and  smote  all  their  enemies  with  the 
stroke  of  the  sword,  and  slaughter  and  destruction, 
and  did  what  they  would  unto  those  that  hated  them. 
And  all  the  rulers  of  the  jfrovinces,  and  the  king's  lieu 
tenants,  and  deputies,  and  officers,  helped  the  Jews ;  be- 


THE  SLAUGHTER  IN  SHUSHAN.       309 

cause  the  fear  of  Mordecai  fell  upon  them.  See  Esth. 
ix:  1,11.  In  the  history  of  the  slaughter,  we  find, 
among  the  slain,  Hainan's  ten  sons.  It  appears  that 
the  number  of  the  slain,  in  the  palace  and  city  of  Shu 
shan,  was  reported  to  the  king  in  the  afternoon,  or 
evening,  for  the  purpose  of  enraging  him  against  the 
Jews ;  but  it  had  quite  a  contrary  effect.  For  as  the 
king  is  made  acquainted  with  what  hail  been  done  in  the 
royal  city,  he  "  said  unto  Esther,  the  queen,  The  Jews 
have  slain  and  destroyed  five  hundred  men  in  Shushan, 
the  palace,  and  the  ten  sons  of  Haman ;  what  have 
they  done  in  the  rest  of  the  king's  provinces  ?  Now, 
what  is  thy  petition  ?  and  it  shall  be  granted  thee ;  or 
what  is  thy  request  further?  and  it  shall  be  done/' 
As  if  he  had  said,  I  am  grieved  that  this  has  turned 
out  to  be  so  bloody  an  affair,  but  it  is  all  owing  to  the 
malice  of  Haman  and  his  partisans ;  and,  if  there  is 
yet  anything  more  that  can  be  done  in  behalf  of  the 
Jews,  to  protect  them  against  their  enemies,  I  am 
ready  to  have  it  done.  And  the  queen  said  :  "  If  it 
please  the  king,  let  it  be  granted  to  the  Jews,  which 
are  in  Shushan,  to  do  to-morrow  also  according  unto 
this  day's  decree,  and  let  Hainan's  ten  sons  be  hanged 
upon  the  gallows.  And  the  king  commanded  it  so  to 
be  done :  and  the  decree  was  given  at  Shushan ;  and 
they  hanged  Haman's  ten  sons."  A  little  examination 
of  the  case  will  exonerate  the  queen  from  wanton  cru 
elty  in  her  request  of  the  king.  Haman's  retainers 
have  turned  out  to  be  more  numerous  and  powerful 
than  was  expected.  They  are  also  found  to  be  as  dan 
gerous  to  the  state  as  they  were  to  the  Jews.  They 
are  the  enemies  of  the  queen,  and  are  ready  for  a  new 


310  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

attack,  which  is  to  bo  apprehended  the  next  day.  Their 
cause  is  desperate.  They  must  prevail  or  perish. 
Mordecai,  no  doubt,  is  fully  informed  of  these  facts, 
and  has  them  communicated  to  the  queen;  and  she 
knowing  that  many  of  Haitian's  friends  have  escaped 
the  first  day,  and  are  only  waiting  for  to-morrow,  or  for  a 
good  chance  to  attack  and  destroy  the  Jews,  she  de 
sired  the  king  to  extend  the  decree  another  day;  that 
is,  that  it  might  be  lawful  for  the  Jews  to  assemble  and 
arm  and  defend  themselves  to-morrow,  as  they  have  done 
to-day,  against  those  who  may  try  to  do  them  hurt. 

But  why  must  Haman's  ten  sons  be  hanged  upon  the 
gallows f  Are  these  ten  other  sons,  or  the  same  tha 
have  been  slain?  Probably  the  same  whose  names  are 
given  in  the  previous  verses  ;  why  then  are  they  to  be 
hanged,  seeing  they  are  already  dead  ?  It  was  a  cus 
tom,  both  among  the  Jews  and  Persians,  to  hang  the 
bodies  of  malefactors  after  they  had  been  executed  in 
some  other  way.  This  was  intended,  of  course,  to  add 
to  their  infamy,  and  to  make  them  a  more  conspicuous 
example  of  terror  to  all  others.  And,  in  this  case,  the 
infamy  was  the  more  terrible  because  ^iey  were  hanged 
on  their  father's  gallows;  that  is,  the  same  he  had  made 
for  Mordecai,  but  upon  which  he  had  himself  been 
hanged.  In  comparatively  modern  times,  and  in  Chris 
tian  countries,  we  have  read  of  martyrs,  for  the  truth, 
being  dug  out  of  their  graves,  arid  their  boiics  being 
burned.  And  besides,  no  doubt,  it  was  designed,  in 
this  way,  to  give  publicity  to  the  fact  that  Hainan's 
;  sons  were  all  killed — that  they  were  actually  dead — and 
that,  therefore,  if  any  one  pretends  to  be  one  of  Ha- 
man's  sons,  and  to  excite  rebellion,  it  could  be  easily 


IIAMAN'S  SONS  HANGED.  311 

shown  that  lie  was  an  impostor ;  for  all  of  his  sons  were 
not  only  dead,  but  consigned  to  the  deepest  ignominy, 
which  would  not  have  been  done  if  his  friends  had  been 
sufficiently  powerful  to  have  prevented  it.  The  people 
must  have  been  deeply  impressed  with  the  hopelessness 
,of  Hainan's  cause.,  when  they  saw  all  his  son's  killed, 
and  then  hung  one  above  another,  all  at  one  time,  on  the 
same  gallows.  Little  did  their  father  imagine  that  it 
was  for  this  purpose  he  erected  so  high  a  gallows.  The 
fifty  cubits  high  did,  however,  serve  all  the  better  to 
make  the  certainty  of  his  sons'  death,  and  their  igno 
miny,  known  throughout  the  royal  city,  and  the  vast 
empire.  The  first  day,  five  hundred  were  killed  in  and 
near  the  palace,  and  the  next,  three  hundred  more, 
making  eight  hundred  of  Hainan's  friends  and  fellow- 
conspirators  that  were  killed  during  the  two  days  of 
slaughter;  and  there  can  now  be  no  mistake  about  the 
fate  of  his  sons.  There  is  no  danger  of  anyone  of 
them  again  heading  an  insurrection. 

And  according  to  the  king's  decree,  "the  Jews  that 
were  in  Shushan  gathered  themselves  together  on  the 
fourteenth  day  also,  and  slew  three  hundred  men  at 
Shushan;  but  on  the  prey  they  laid  not  their  hand. 
But  the  other  Jews  that  were  in  the  king's  provinces 
gathered  themselves  together,  and  stood  for  their  lives, 
and  had  rest  from  their  enemies,  and  slew  of  their  foes 
seventy  and  five  thousand,  but  they  laid  not  their  hands 
on  the  prey."  Verses  15  and  16  of  the  ninth  chapter. 

In  regard  to  the  yreut  number  slain,  it  must  be  re 
membered  that  the  Persian  empire  was  very  large  and 
populous,  and  that  the  numbers  slain  in  battles  in  an- 


312  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

cient  times  were  very  great.*  And  then  it  is  also  to 
be  remembered  that  the  king's  officers,  rulers  of  the 
provinces,  lieutenants  and  deputies,  throughout  all  the 
provinces,  helped  the  Israelites.  Hebrew  writers  also 
contend  that  all  these  seventy-five  thousand  were  Amal- 
ekites,  and  that  in  this  slaughter  was  fulfilled  the, 
prophecy  of  Balaam :  "  Amalek  was  the  first  of  the 
nations,  but  his  latter  end  shall  be,  that  he  perish  for 
ever."  It  is  true,  that  the  prophets  foretold  the  utter 
destruction  of  this  people,  and  I  know  not  that  they 
were  ever  heard  of  after  this  slaughter.  Numb,  xxiv  : 
20 ;  Exo.  xvii :  14.  It  is  clear  also  from  fhe  history, 
that  the  Jews'  enemies  were  the  aggressors.  They  acted 
only  in  self-defence.  They  lifted  their  hands  only 
against  such  as  sought  their  hurt.  Hainan's  faction 
were  infatuated  to  their  own  destruction.  They  could 
not  stand — not  a  man  of  them  before  the  Jews.  But 
if  they  had  remained  quiet,  there  is  no  probability  that 
a  hair  of  their  head  would  have  been  touched.  The 
Jews  were  conquerors,  because  they  were  on  the  right 
side,  and  God  helped  them.  And  though  victory  is 
often  an  accident,  yet  it  is  true  that  Providence  helps  the 
best  disciplined  and  bravest  troops.  Trust  in  God  does 
not  excuse  us  from  keeping  our  gunpowder  dry.  The 
Jews  were  numerous,  and  they  were  united.  They 
stood  together  in  all  the  cities  for  their  lives,  their 
wives  and  their  little  ones. 

It  is  twice  said  in  the  text — that  on  the  prey  they 
laid  not  their  hands.  They  were  authorized  by  the 
decree  to  take  the  goods  of  their  enemies  that  should 
be  slain,  but  there  is  not  a  syllable  to  show  that  they 

*  See  Ilis.  of  ancient  Persia  published  by  Carters  of  New  York. 


REJOICINGS    OF    THE   JEWS.  313 

took  any  spoil,  or  that  they  injured  any  one  that  did 
not  first  attack  them .  By  abstaining  from  the  spoil, 
they  showed  that  they  did  not  act  from  malice,  or  for 
the  purpose  of  enriching  themselves.  They  were 
neither  selfish  -nor  revengeful.  They  were  ready  to 
mix  mercy  with  judgment,  and  were  disposed  to  show 
that  they  could  be  more  generous  than  their  enemies 
would  have  been  to  them.  The  spoil,  therefore,  they 
touched  not,  either  leaving  it  for  the  king's  treasury,  or 
for  the  children  of  those  slain.  Their  motto  was  not 
that  the  spoils  belong  to  the  victors.  Nor  were  they 
wanting  in  loyalty.  They  were  faithful  subjects. 

The  effects  of  the  counter-decree  in  Shushan,  were 
just  such  as  we  should  have  expected,  when  we  remem 
ber  how  sad  the  royal  city  was  at  the  promulgation  of 
the  murderous  one  of  Hainan.  If  they  were  grieved 
at  that,  they  would  rejoice  at  this;  the  calm  came  after 
the  storm.  Joy,  peace,  and  security,  were  the  fruits 
of  their  wonderful  deliverance.  The  dark  cloud  that 
had  so  long  hung  over  them,  was  at  last  dispelled,  and 
sunshine  again  beaming  upon  them.  And  the  Jews 
had  light,  and  gladness,  and  joy,  and  honor!  In  the 
Bible  light  is  often  synonymous  with  gladness,  because 
light  is  pleasant  to  the  eyes ;  and  it  is  also  common  to 
add  terms  explanatory  of  former  ones,  to  add  emphasis 
to  the  sentence.  Gladness  and  joy  here,  are  intended 
to  explain  what  is  meant  by  light,  and  the  honor  is 
put  in  contrast  to  the  contempt  heretofore  felt  for  the 
Jews. 

And  throughout  the  empire  the  Jews  had  joy  and 
gladness,  a  feast  and  a  good  day.  And  many  of  the 
people  of  the  land  became  Jews,  for  the  fear  of  the  Jews 
14 


314  THE    HEBREW-PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

fell  upon  tfiem.  It  is  characteristic  of  the  nations  of  the 
East  to  this  day !  just  as  it  is  with  the  savage  tribes  of 
our  own  continent,  to  join  themselves  in  alliance  with  the 
stronger  party,  or  the  winning  side.  Many  of  the  peo 
ple  became  Jews,  that  is,  renounced  their  idolatry,  were 
circumcised,  .and  became  worshippers  of  the  true  God. 
For  the  fear  of  the.  Jews  fell  upon  them.  The  fate  of 
Haman  was  before  their  eyes.  They  were  quite  con 
vinced  that  no  one  could  stand  against  the  seed  of  the 
Jews,  for  whose  benefit  such  stupendous  miracles  had 
been  wrought  in  former  times.  Fear  and  self-preser 
vation,  as  well  as  a  regard  for  religion,  conspired  to 
make  many  proselytes.  Such  converts,  however,  were 
not  likely  to  do  much  honor  to  the  true  religion,  but 
the  historian  is  faithful  to  record  the  fact.  And  it  is 
still  a  proof  of  the  weakness  of  human  nature,  that 
many  are  willing  to  join  themselves  to  a  congregation, 
or  become  professors  of  religion  when  it  is  fashionable 
so  to  do,  or  when  the  church  seems  to  be  prosperous, 
who  are  not  to  be  found  among  her  friends  in  the  days 
of  adversity.  But  our  Lord's  teaching  on  this  subject 
is  remarkably  plain  and  emphatic.  "  Whosoever  there 
fore  shall  confess  me  before  men,  mine  will  I  confess 
also  before  iny  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  But  who 
soever  shall  deny  me  before  men,  mine  will  I  also  deny 
before  my  Father  which  is  in  heaven.  He  that  loveth 
father  or  mother  more  than  me  is  not  worthy  of  me ; 
and  he  that  loveth  son  or  daughter  more  than  me  is 
not  worthy  of  me.  And  he  that  taketh  not  his  cross, 
and  followeth  after  me,  is  not  worthy  of  rne.  He  that 
findeth  his  life  shall  lose  it;  and  he  that  loseth  his  life 
for  my  sake  shall  find  it.  Math,  x:  32,  39. 


CHAPTER   XX. 


THE    LIVING     MONUMENT. 


"  My  fame  extends  from  West  to  East, 
And  always  at  the  Purim  feast, 
*  *  *  * 

The  wine  it  so  elateth  me, 
That  I  no  difference  can  see 
Between  '  Accursed  Haman  be  !' 

And  '  Blessed  be  Mordecai !'  " 

Longfellow. 

ANOTHER  result  of  the  Jews'  victory  over  their  ene 
mies,  and  of  the  great  favor  in  which  the  queen  and 
Mordecai  are  held  by  the  great  king  Ahasuerus,  is  that 
no  man  durst  lay  his  hand  upon  a  Jew,  nor  even  frown 
upon  him.  They  who  had  been  considered  as  wretched 
captives  are  not  only  safe,  but  are  made  lords  in  the 
land.  It  is,  then,  natural  they  should  have  a  national 
festival  in  commemoration  of  their  deliverance.  Ac 
cordingly,  we  find  the  feast  of  Purim  instituted  at  that 
time,  and  observed,  from  that  day  to  this,  by  their  pos 
terity,  in  every  part  of  the  globe. 

"  On  the  thirteenth  day  of  the  month  Adar  •  and  on 
the  fourteenth  day  of  the  same  rested  they,  and  made 
it  a  day  of  feasting  and  gladness.  Therefore,  the  Jews 

14A 


316  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

of  the  villages,  that  dwelt  in  the  unwalled  towns,  made 
the  fourteenth  day  of  the  month  Adar  a  day  of  glad 
ness  and  feastings,  and  a  good  day,  and  of  rendering 
portions  one  to  another,  and  gifts  to  the  poor.  Where 
fore,  they  called  the  days  PURIM,  after  the  name  Pur. 
Therefore,  for  all  the  words  of  this  letter,  and  of  that 
which  they  had  seen  concerning  this  matter,  and  which 
had  come  unto  them,  the  Jews  ordained,  and  took  upon 
them,  and  upon  their  seed,  and  upon  all  such  as  joined 
themselves  unto  them,  so  as  it  should  not  fail,  that 
they  would  keep  these  two  days  according  to  their 
writing,  and  according  to  their  appointed  time  every 
year.  And  that  these  days  should  be  remembered  and 
kept  throughout  every  generation,  every  family,  every 
province,  and  every  city ;  and  that  these  days  of  Purirn 
should  not  fail  from  among  the  Jews,  nor  the  memorial 
of  them  perish  from  their  seed.  Then  Esther  the  queen, 
the  daughter  of  Abihail,  and  Mordecai  the  Jew,  wrote 
with  all  authority  to  confirm  this  second  letter  of  Pu- 
rim.  And  he  sent  the  letters  unto  all  the  Jews,  to  the 
hundred  twenty  and  seven  provinces  of  the  kingdom  of 
Ahasuerus,  with  words  of  peace  and  truth.  To  con 
firm  these  days  of  Purim  in  their  times  appointed,  ac 
cording  as  Mordecai  the  Jew  and  Esther  the  queen  had 
enjoined  them,  and  as  they  had  decreed  for  themselves 
and  for  their  seed,  the  matters  of  the  fastings  and  their 
cry.  And  the  decree  of  Esther  confirmed  these  mat 
ters  of  Purim  ;  and  it  was  written  in  the  book." 

The  unwalled  towns  (verse  19)  are  so  specified  to 
distinguish  them  from  Shushan,  and  the  great  cities 
of  the  land — The  lesser  villages,  as  is  intimated  in 
the  Hebrew.  From,  the  expression  in  the  twentieth 


THE   PURIM    ORDAINED.  317 

verse,  that  "  Mordecai  wrote  these  things/'  it  has 
been  said  by  some  that  we  are  to  infer  that  the 
Book  of  Esther,  up  to  this  verse,  was  written  by 
him,  and  that  the  remaining  part  of  the  book  was 
written  by  some  one  else,  Ezra,  or  the  men  of  the  Great 
Synagogue.  All  that  is  known,  or,  at  least,  considered 
as  worthy  of  any  reliance  about  the  author  of  this  book, 
has  been  already  given  in  the  third  chapter  of  this 
work  ;  and  it  seems  to  me  very  plain,  that  the  meaning 
here  is,  that  Mordecai  wrote  the  book,  and  the  king's 
decree,  also,  in  favor  of  the  Jews,  and  the  letters  to  the 
Jews,  ordaining  and  instructing  them  how  to  keep  the 
feast  of  Purim.  These  interpretations  are  not  contra 
dictory  •  and  that  this  is  the  meaning,  is  rendered 
more  plain  from  the  last  verse  of  the  ninth  chapter, 
where  the  decree  of  Esther,  concerning  these  matters 
of  Purim,  is  said  to  have  been  written  in  the  book  ;  that 
is,  among  the  statutes  and  observances  of  the  Jews, 
who  were  to  keep  this  feast,  and  their  seed  after  them, 
for  ever.  The  decree  confirming  these  matters  was,  no 
doubt,  also  recorded  in  the  Chronicles  of  the  Empire, 
and  it  is  not  impossible,  but  it  may  yet  be  dug  up  from 
among  the  ruins  of  Shuster.  A  national  festival  was 
to  be  established,  and  its  observance  to  be  perpetual, 
which  is  according  to  history  to  this  hour. 

Let  us  then  consider  a  little  the  institution,  history 
and  observance  of  this  feast  of  Purim.  And  to  do  this, 
we  have  to  go  back  to  the  third  chapter  and  seventh 
verse,  where  we  get  the  name  for  the  first  time.  "  In 
the  first  month,  that  is,  the  month  Nisan,  in  the  twelfth 
year  of  king  Ahasuerus,  they  cast  Pur,  that  is,  the  Lot, 
before  Haraan  from  day  to  day." 


318  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

In  the  Septuagint,  of  Esther  iii :  7,  there  is  an  ad 
dition  to  the  text,  which  some  interpreters  think  be 
longed  originally  to  the  Hebrew.  The  addition  is  his 
torically  correct,  and  makes  the  passage  plain.  The 
reading  of  the  Septuagint  is  in  the  manner  following : 
"  In  the  first  month,  that  is,  the  month  Nisan,  in  the 
twelfth  year  of  king  Ahasuerus,  they  cast  Pur,  that  is, 
the  lot  before  Hainan,  from  day  to  day,  and  from  month 
to  month,  that  they  might  destroy  in  one  day  the  peo 
ple  of  Mordecai ;  and  the  lot  fell  on  the  fourteenth  day 
of  the  month  Adar."  The  first  month  here  refers  to 
their  civil  year,  and  the  month  Nisan  answers,  say  to 
March,  and  Adar  corresponds  to  parts  of  February  and 
March. 

They  cast  Pur,  that  is,  the  lot.  It  seems  probable, 
from  the  best  authorities,  that  Pur  is  the  Hebrew 
form  of  the  Persian  pari,  which  means  happening  for 
tuitously.  This  word  comes  to  us  through  the  Latin 
pars,  from  which  we  have  PART. 

Some  have  suggested  that  Pur  signified  a  game  of 
chance,  that  was  played  with  Haman,  or  by  his  direc 
tion,  from  day  to  day,  for  the  purpose  of  diverting  his 
mind,  until  the  favorable  time  should  conie  for  seeking 
his  vengeance  on  the  Jews ;  or  that  they  cast  lots  to 
determine  how  they  should  divide  the  spoils  to  be  taken 
from  the  wealthy  families  they  were  going  to  destroy. 
It  is  well  known  that  the  Persians  and  oriental  nations 
were  much  given  to  divination.  Even  the  ancient  He 
brews  were  in  the  habit  of  casting  lots,  or  of  using  a 
species  of  divination  by  which  to  find  out  the  divine 
will.  Lot-casting,  as  far  as  it  seemed  to  me  for  edifi 
cation,  was  considered  in  my  little  volume  on  "  Achan, 


THE   BOTTLE    KING.  319 

or  the  Wedge  of  Gold/'f  to  which  I  beg  to  refer  with 
out  repeating  or  adding  anything  here,  But  we  west 
ern  nations  and  peoples  are  not  wholly  emancipated 
from  similar  superstitions.  Shakespeare  following  the 
old  chronicler  Hollinshead,  says,  speaking  of  Agincourt9 
and  of  the  evening  before  the  battle  : 

"  Proud  of  their  numbers,  and  secure  in  soul, 
The  confident  and  over-lusty  French, 
Do  the  low-rated  English  play  at  dice." 

Henry  V. 

Ilollinshead  says,  the  French  were  so  sure  of  victory, 
that  the  captains  had  determined  how  they  would  di 
vide  the  spoil }  "  and  the  soldiers,  the  night  before, 
had  placed  the  Englishmen  at  dice."  Similar  things 
are  said  of  the  English  on  the  eve  of  the  battle  of  New 
Orleans,  eighth  January,  1815. 

From  Horace,*  in  several  places,  and  from  other 
classic  authors,  whom  it  is  not  necessary  to  name,  it  is 
seen  that  it  was  the  custom  of  the  ancients  to  choose  a 
governor  arbiter  bibendi — by  the  cast  of  the  dice, 
or  as  some  translate  it,  to  gain  the  dominion  of  the  bot 
tle  by  the  vote  of  the  dice.  The  allusion  is,  no  doubt, 
to  the  practice  mentioned  in  a  preceding  chapter,  of 
having  some  one  chosen  to  preside  over  their  feasts, 
whom  all  were  obliged  to  obey,  and  to  drink  as  he  di 
rected.  The  manner  of  choosing  was  by  throwing  the 
dice,  which  had,  on  their  different  sides,  the  figures  of 


f  Piiblished  in  San  Francisco,  and  also  by  the  Presbyterian  Board  at  Phila 
delphia.    Chapter  iii :  p.  46,  et  seq. 

*  Non  regna  virii  sortiere  tails.    Odes,  1  lib.  18. 

Quern  Venus  arbitrum 

Dicet  bibendi  ?     2  lib.  vii.  25. 


320  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

Jupiter,  Mars,  Saturn,  Apollo,  Venus  and  Diana.  He 
who  first  threw  a  Venus  presided,  was  called  the  king 
of  the  bottle,  or  governor  of  the  feast,  as  at  the  mar 
riage  in  Cana  of  Galilee.  John  ii:  8,  9.  This  much 
is  certain,  ancient  nations  were  in  the  habit  of  cast 
ing  lots  to  find  out  whether  they  should  do  or  forbear 
to  do — go  to  war  or  refrain  •  and  to  find  out  what  days 
were  lucJty  for  beginning  an  enterprise.  The  king  of 
Babylon  cast  lots,  or  divined  which  way  he  should  lead 
his  armies,  by  arrows.  For  example,  when,  at  the 
parting  of  two  ways,  and  wishing  to  know  whether  or 
not  to  go  against  Jerusalem,  two  arrows  were  prepared, 
one  commanding  him  to  go  and  the  other  forbidding, 
and  they  were  shot,  drawn  or  touched  in  some  way, 
and  which  ever  was  made  to  answer  first  was  followed. 
In  Hainan's  case,  probably,  the  names  of  all  the  months 
were  written  on  the  dice,  and  when  the  month  had 
been  designated,  then  the  day  of  the  month  was  ascer 
tained  in  like  manner.  Though  wicked,  Haman  was 
superstitious,  as  were  Samson's  enemies,  the  old  Philis 
tines.  And  so  are  the  heathen  to  this  day ;  and  so, 
also,  are  most  ungodly  men,  even  men  renowned  for 
learning  and  scientific  knowledge,  and  boasting  that 
they  are  unbelievers,  have  yet  often  shown  symptoms 
of  the  most  tormenting  superstitions.  It  is  not  unusual 
for  skeptics  to  turn  out  the  most  credulous  of  men,  and 
for  those  who  do  not  believe  Moses  and  the  prophets, 
Jesus  Christ  and  his  apostles,  to  be  believers  in  table- 
turning  and  spirit-rappings  and  the  such-like  nonsense. 
Hainan's  object,  no  doubt,  was  to  get  his  gods  en 
listed  on  his  side,  and,  if  possible,  prevent  the  Jews 
from  having  any  aid  from  their  God.  He,  therefore, 


THE    DAY    FIXED    BY    LOT.  321 

resorted  to  lot-casting,  to  find  out  what  month  and  what 
day  would  be  the  most  unpropitious  for  the  Jews. 
And,  upon  trial,  he  finds,  as  answer,  that  Adar  was  the 
unfavorable  month,  and,  upon  investigation,  is  con 
firmed  in  this  opinion,  by  finding  that  they  have  no 
festival  for  that  month.  It  was  a  month  not  sanctified 
or  protected  by  any  religious  rites.  This,  therefore,  he 
concluded  was  the  most  suitable  month  for  his  business. 
And,  giving  thanks  to  his  gods,  he  sets  about  fixing 
the  day,  and  it  falls  on  the  thirteenth  day  of  the  month. 
And  he  again  drinks  to  Ahriman,  and  vows  to  fill 
his  temple  with  offerings  and  votoes. 

It  is  worth  while  to  observe  here,  that  Hainan's 
object  was  not — could  not  have  been — as  Le  Clerc  and 
some  others  have  said,  to  give  time  to  the  Jews  to  es 
cape  ;  to  frighten  them  to  flee  away.  Whither  could 
they  go  ?  How  much  of  the  then  known  world  was  open 
to  them  beyond  the  provinces  of  the  great  king  ?  No. 
The  time  was,  indeed,  too  far  oif  to  please  him,  but  it 
had  been  fixed  by  lot,  and  he  was  too  superstitious  to 
think  of  changing  it.  And  how  remarkable  it  is,  that 
the  lot  fixed  the  time  nearly  twelve  months  off — as  far 
off  as  the  list  of  months  allowed — thereby  giving  Mor- 
decai  and  Esther  full  time  to  concert  measures  for  Ha 
inan's  defeat.  Surely,  the  Lord  maketh  the  wrath  of 
man  to  praise  Him,  and  the  remainder  of  wrath  He  re- 
straineth.  The  God  of  Abraham  here  begins  to  work 
Hainan's  confusion.  If  the  time  had  been  shorter, 
how  would  it  have  been  possible  to  neutralize  the  mur 
derous  decree  throughout  all  the  provinces,  as  we  have 
found  was  done,  from  India  to  Ethiopia,  in  time  to 
save  the  Jews  ?  It  was  not,  then,  as  men  say,  a  mere 
MB 


322       THE  HEBREW- PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

chance — nor  was  it  the  Persian  gods  that  fixed  the 
month  and  the  day,  but  the  God  of  the  Hebrews,  who 
remembered  His  covenant  with  their  fathers.  The 
last  month  of  the  year  is  fixed  upon,  in  order  that  as 
much  time  as  possible  may  be  given  to  Mordecai  and 
the  queen  to  use  the  proper  means  for  the  deliverance 
of  their  people.  The  Almighty's  hand  is  upon  all  the 
events  of  life.  If  the  lot  is  cast  into  the  lap,  the  whole 
disposing  thereof  is  of  the  Lord.  Prov.  xvi:  33. 

And  though  it  is  remarkable,  as  has  been  already 
observed,  that  the  name  of  Grod  is  not  found  in  the 
book  of  Esther;  yet,  surely  JEHOVAH'S  presence  is 
clearly  to  be  seen  in  it.  from  beginning  to  end.  Where, 
in  the  whole  of  human  histories,  can  we  find  a  chapter 
of  such  remarkable  Providential  interpositions  as  are 
here  recorded  in  favor  of  the  seed  of  Jacob,  scattered 
as  a  captive  people  throughout  the  Persian  empire  ? 
"  What  was  it,  or  rather,  Who  was  it,  that  kept  the 
king's  eyes  from  slumber  on  a  night  big  with  the  doom 
of  the  Hebrew  nation  ?  Who  moved  him  to  call  for 
the  chronicles  of  his  reign,  and  to  summon  the  tale- 
reciter,  or  the  minstrel,  to  beguile  his  waking  hours  ? 
Who  moved  the  reader  to  open  at  that  part  which  re 
lated  to  the  service  of  Mordecai  in  disclosing  a  plot 
against  the  king's  life  ?  Who  quickened  the  king's 
languid  attention  and  interest,  and  stirred  him  to  in 
quire  what  rewards  had  been  bestowed  upon  the  man  to 
whose  fidelity  he  owed  his  life  and  crown  ?  Who  timed 
this  so,  that  this  glow  of  kindly  feeling  toward  Morde 
cai,  and  this  determination  right  royally  to  acknowledge 
his  unrequited  services,  occurred  at  the  very  moment 
that  Hainan  had  arrived  at  the  palace  to  ask  leave  to 


THE  OBSERVANCE  OF  PURIM.         823 

hang  this  very  Mordecai  upon  a  gallows  fifty  cubits 
high;  which  he  had  caused  already  to  be  set  up,  in  the 
assured  conviction  that  the  king  would  not  refuse  him 
so  trifling  a  request,  and  little  thinking  that  he  himself 
was  destined  to  swing  high  in  air  upon  it  ?  Lastly, 
Who  ordered  it  so,  that,  coming  with  this  errand,  in 
his  wrath,  he  was  only  stopped  from  uttering  it  by  an 
order  to  hasten  to  confer  upon  this  Mordecai,  with  his 
own  hands,  the  highest  distinctions  the  king  could  be 
stow  upon  the  man  he  delighteth  to  honor.  God  not 
in  the  book  of  Esther!  If  not  there,  where  is  He? 
To  our  view,  His  glory — the  glory  of  His  goodness  in 
caring  for,  and  shielding  from  harm,  His  afflicted 
church,  shines  through  every  page." — Kitto. 

In  the  feast  of  Purim,  which  occurs,  I  believe,  in 
February,  we  have  a  commemoration  of  the  Providen 
tial  deliverance  of  the  Jews  in  Persia,  more  than  two 
thousand  years  ago.  During  this  festival  business  is 
carried  on,  and  work  done,  as  on  other  days.  It  is  not, 
therefore,  a  Jewish  Sabbath.  And  it  is  also,  perhaps, 
true  that  there  are  differences,  or  varieties,  in  some  of 
the  minor  usages,  or  customs,  found  connected  with 
the  observance  of  this  festival.  It  were  not  strange  if 
the  manner  of  keeping  it  should  differ,  in  a  few  non- 
essentials,  in  Europe  from  that  observed  in  America. 
The  Lord's  supper  is  observed,  by  some  Christians, 
literally  in  the  evening,  and  by  others,  at  noon.  Some 
receive  the  elements  as  they  sit  in  their  pews ;  others 
sit  around  a  table,  as  nearly  as  possible,  in  the  way  the 
disciples  sat  around  our  Lord ;  while  others  kneel  around 
the  pulpit,  or  what  they  call  an  altar.  But  sucli  dif 
ferences  in  the  manner  of  keeping  this  sacrament  do 


324        THE  HEBREW- PERSIAN  QUEEN. 

not,  in  any  wise,  take  from  its  importance,  nor  lessen 
the  historic  evidence  in  its  favor. 

At  the  festival  of  Purim,  the  book  of  Esther — Me- 
gillali,  as  the  Israelites  call  it,  is  read.  The  copy  used 
is  written  on  vellum,  in  the  form  of  a  roll ;  and  it  used 
to  be  so  written,  and  is  perhaps  so  still,  that  the  names 
of  Hainan's  ten  sons  could  be  pronounced  in  a  single 
breath — written  in  order,  one  after  another,  after  the 
manner  in  which  their  bodies  were  hung  on  the  gallows. f 

It  was  a  good  day,  and  a  day  for  the  sending  of  por 
tions  one  to  another.  This  custom  of  sending  portions 
is  common  in  the  East,  and  especially  in  India,  where 
many  Bible  customs  have  been  retained  with  but  little 
change.  The  Hindoos  on  the  first  of  every  month  often 
send  cakes,  oil,  clothes,  spices  and  fruits,  as  presents  to 
one  another.  And  if  a  Prince  invites  to  a  feast  those 
who  cannot  come,  he  sends  them  a  portion  of  his  ban 
quet  to  be  eaten  at  their  own  home  in  remembrance  of 
his  bounty.*  It  was  a  day  of  feasting  and  gladness, 
as  well  as  of  sending  portions  one  to  another,  and  gifts  to 
the  poor.  Almsgiving  is  always  a  becoming  method  of 
expressing  our  gratitude  for  the  divine  favor.  A  He 
brew  proverb  says  :  Alms  are  the  salt  that  season  and 
preserve  our  goods ;  and  as  Esther  was  an  orphan,  it  is 
peculiarly  fit  that  a  feast  at  which  she  is  the  Heroine 
should  show  special  munificence  toward  the  fatherless. 
Our  Hebrew  brethren  are  justly  celebrated  for  their 
protection  of  their  own  poor,  and  for  the  education  of 
their  own  children.  Usually  in  the  observance  of  this 
feast,  much  attention  is  given  in  supplying  the  poor, 

f  See  Home's  Intro.,  iii  vol.,  chap.  iv. 
*  See  Harmer's  Obs.  chapter  iv. 


THE    PURIM   FEASTING.  325 

and  in  showing  delicate  kindness  to  their  religious 
teachers,  and  to  make  every  one  comfortable  and  happy. 
Nor  should  it  be  thought  a  strange  thing  that  some 
abuses  should  have  sometimes  been  observed  in  this  fes 
tival.  Purim  seems  to  be  very  much  like  some  of  the 
festivals  of  the  Pagans,  or  to  resemble  our  Fourtli-of- 
July,  when  men,  women  and  children,  indulge  in  diver 
sions  and  in  the  foaming  bowl  more  freely  than  at  any 
other  time.  I  have  heard  it  said  that  it  was  a  part  of 
the  duty  of  "  a  free  born  American  citizen  to  imbibe 
freely  of  old  Bourbon  on  the  Fourth-of-July,  though  he 
were  a  son  of  temperance  all  the  other  days  of  the  year." 
It  were  not  unnatural,  then,  if  the  Israelites  did  excuse 
the  free  use  of  wine  at  the  feast  of  Purim,  saying,  that 
all  men,  women  and  children,  must  drink  of  the 
"  crowned  goblet  foaming  with  floods  of  wine,"  for  all 
men  and  women  and  children  were  exposed  to  danger. 
But  if  it  ever  was  true,  as  our  gifted  countryman  makes 
Rabbi  Ben  Israel  say,  in  the  lines  at  the  head  of  this 
chapter,  that  it  was  the  duty  or  the  custom  of  those  who 
kept  the  feast  of  Purim,  to  indulge  in  wine  so  freely,  as 
not  to  be  able  to  know  the  difference  between  "  cursed 
be  Hainan  !  and  blessed  be  Mordecai,"  it  is  not  so  now. 
Israelites,  I  think,  have  always  used  wine  as  a  good  gift 
of  the  Almighty ;  but  as  far  as  my  observation  and 
historical  researches  go,  and  I  have  seen  them  in  large 
numbers  in  all  the  four  quarters  of  the  globe,  and  I 
must  say,  and  I  am  happy  to  say  it,  I  regard  them  as  the 
most  temperate  people  I  have  ever  known.  I  can  say 
of  them,  what  I  cannot  say  of  any  other  race  or  religion ; 
I  have  never  seen  an  Israelite  drunken.  It  is  well 
known  that  in  the  East  at  the  present  day,  drunken 


326  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

dogs,  are  among  the  epithets  bestowed  on  Franks  and 
Christians,  and  with  more  truthfulness  than  it  is  pleas 
ant  to  confess. 

The  feast  of  Purim  then,  is  an  annual  commemora 
tion  of  the  deliverance  of  the  Jews  in  Persia,  Esther 
being  the  Queen,  and  Mordecai  Grand  Vizier.  It  was 
instituted  at  the  time  in  the  most  solemn  manner,  and 
the  Jews  took  it  upon  themselves,  and  ordained,  with 
all  the  authority  of  the  king  and  queen,  that  they  and 
their  seed  after  them,  and  all  who  should  ever  join 
themselves  to  them  forever,  should  observe  as  a  day  of 
feasting  and  gladness,  and  of  giving  portions  one  to 
another,  and  gifts  to  orphans.  "The  truth  of  this 
whole  history,"  says  Dr.  Lee,  "  is  demonstrated  by  the 
feast  of  Purim,  kept  up  from  that  time  to  this  very  day. 
And  this  surprising  providential  revolution  in  favor  of 
a  captive  people,  thereby  constantly  commemorated, 
standeth  even  upon  a  firmer  basis,  than  that  there  ever 
was  such  a  man  as  king  Alexander  the  Great  in  the 
world,  of  whose  reign  there  is  no  such  abiding  monu 
ment  at  this  day  to  be  found  anywhere.  Nor  will  they, 
1  dare  say,  who  quarrel  at  this,  or  any  other  of  the  sa 
cred  histories,  find  it  a  very  easy  matter  to  reconcile 
the  different  accounts  which  were  given  by  historians 
of  the  affairs  of  this  king,  or  to  conform  any  one  fact  of 
his,  whatever,  with  the  same  evidence  which  is  here 
given  for  the  principal  fact  in  the  sacred  book,  or  even 
so  much  as  to  prove  the  existence  of  such  a  person,  of 
whom  so  many  great  things  are  related,  but  upon  grant 
ing  this  book  of  Esther,  or  sixth  of  Esdras,  as  it  is  pla 
ced  in  some  of  the  most  ancient  copies  of  the  Vulgate, 
to  be  a  correct,  most  true  and  certain  history." — Dr. 
Lees  Dissertations  on  Esdras. 


OUR    STONES    OF   HELP.  327 

It  is  according  to  the  instincts  of  the  human  heart  as 
well  as  according  to  the  laws  of  the  human  mind,  that 
some  monument  or  memorial  of  past  events  that  have 
been  of  great  interest  to  us,  or  our  race  should  stand 
out  as  their  concrete  history.  This  is  the  meaning  of 
the  columns,  arches  and  pillars  that  have  been  erected, 
of  some  kind  or  other,  in  all  ages  and  countries.  The 
lion  crowned  mound  of  Waterloo,  the  monument  of 
Bunker  Hill,  the  plain  of  Marathon,  and  the  moun 
tains  looking  on  it,  are  not  more  truly  monuments  of 
past  realities,  than  is  the  feast  of  Purim.  Nor  is  there 
any  monument,  unless  it  be  the  Church  of  God  itself, 
that  is  so  truly  a  living  proof  and  demonstration  of  the 
truth  of  our  Holy  Scriptures  as  the  Israelitish  race. 
Every  Hebrew  face  on  earth  is  an  epistle  from  the  Al 
mighty,  proving  the  truth  of  Divine  Revelation. 
Their  writings  are  admitted  to  be  ancient,  and  that  they 
have  been  preserved  with  singular  care  and  fidelity ; 
and  their  personal,  tribal  and  national  histories,  (and 
yet  they  are  not  a  nation,)  are  according  to  their  own 
writings  ;  that  is,  a  fulfillment  of  the  threatenings  and 
promises  of  JEHOVAH,  made  to  them  and  concerning 
them.  Their  feast  of  Purim  and  their  day  of  Atone 
ment,  are  proofs  of  the  reality  of  great  past  historic 
events,  just  as  our  Fourth-of-July  is  a  proof  of  the  truth 
of  our  Declaration  of  Independence.  And  as  Ameri 
cans  are  wont  to  have  a  feast  and  read  the  Declaration 
of  Independence  on  the  Fourth-of-July,  so  are  the  Is 
raelites  wont  to  have  a  feast  and  a  good  day,  and  read 
the  Megilloth  Esther  on  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
of  the  month  Adar.  And  the  length  of  time,  the  num 
ber  of  generations  that  have  kept  the  Purim  feast,  only 


328  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN     QUEEN. 

enhances  its  importance,  without  diminishing  the  cer 
tainty  of  its  historic  verities.  If  Americans  should  be 
perpetuated  distinctively  as  such  for  two  thousand  years, 
and  keep  up  without  failure,  the  observance  of  the 
Fourth-of-July  and  the  reading  of  the  Declaration, 
would  it  not  be  an  irresistible  argument  at  that  ad 
vance  period  of  time  in  favor  of  the  historic  events 
commemorated  thus  on  the  Fourth-of-July,  and  which 
we  know  to  be  verities,  and  not  fables  or  myths  ?  An 
argument  of  the  same  kind  is  easily  constructed  out  of 
our  holy  sacrament,  but  I  need  not  dwell  on  it. 

And  finally,  it  is,  in  every  way,  proper  to  have  our 
resting  places  in  the  wilderness — our  monumental  piles, 
in  remembrance  of  God's  mercies.  It  is  thus  that  we 
honor  Him,  encourage  His  people,  and  strengthen  our 
own  faith.  In  traveling  through  the  wilderness,  or 
across  a  dreary  desert,  it  is  some  relief  to  find  signs,  or 
traces,  or  proofs,  that  other  human  beings,  like  our 
selves,  have  gone  successfully  through  the  same;  just 
so,  as  we  are  journeying  on  through  the  world,  we  may 
draw  great  comfort  from  the  monuments  that  God's 
people  have  left  behind,  proclaiming  His  faithfulness 
and  loving-kindness.  These  monuments  are  stones  of 
help — JEbenezers,  where  we  should  raise  our  notes  of 
praise,  and  shout  back  encouragement  to  the  weary  and 
fainting  that  are  behind — but  all  our  way  is  not  desert. 
Here  and  there  a  table  is  spread  for  us  in  the  presence 
of  our  enemies.  Here  and  there  an  oasis  is  found  for 
refreshment  and  social  intercourse.  Here  and  there 
mountain  hights  are  gained,  from  which  we  may  see 
the  promised  land.  The  church  of  God  is  not  always 
in  storms.  There  are  periods  of  gladsome  sunshine. 


GLORY   BEGUN    BELOW.  329 

Believers  have  some  sweet  interchanges  of  joy  amid 
their  warfare.  The  grapes  of  Eschol,  in  rich  clusters, 
are  sometimes  found  in  the  desert  way,  even  before 
they  enter  upon  their  endless  triumph. 

"The  men  of  grace  have  found 

Glory  begun  below, 
Celestial  fruits,  on  earthly  ground, 
From  faith  and  hope  may  grow. 

The  hill  of  Zion  yields 

A  thousand  sacred  sweets, 
Before  we  reach  the  heavenly  fields, 

Or  walk  the  golden  streets. 

Then  let  our  songs  abound, 

And  every  tear  be  dry, 
We're  marching  through  Tmmanuel's  ground, 

To  fairer  worlds  on  high." 


CHAPTER   XXI. 


FLOWERS    FROM    THE    TOMB. 


"  That  nothing  walks  with  aimless  feet; 
That  not  one;  life  shall  be  destroy'd, 
Or  cast  as  rubbish  to  the  void, 
When  God  hath  made  the  pile  complete." 


LORD  BACON  had  more  confidence  in  the  justice  of 
posterity,  and  of  distant  nations,  than  in  his  own  times. 
And  time,  that  proves  all  things,  has  justified  his  con 
fidence.  It  is  a  curious  fact,  and,  in  some  degree,  an 
illustration  of  his  opinion,  that  we  are  much  more  in 
debted  to  the  tombs  of  Egypt,  than  to  the  sculptures 
of  its  other  public  buildings,  for  a  knowledge  of  the 
occupations,  customs,  and  domestic  life  of  its  ancient 
inhabitants.  The  same  remark  is  true  of  the  ancient 
Persians.  From  themselves  we  have  scarcely  anything, 
except  their  monumental  inscriptions,  and  they  were 
lost  —  buried  under  the  whirring  sands  and  rubbish  of 
centuries  —  until  within  a  few  years;  yet  it  is  to  these 
inscriptions,  and  to  foreigners,  that  we  are  indebted  for 
our  knowledge  of  the  Persian  Xerxes  and  Cyrus. 

As  life  shows  itself  in  living,  so  do  true  principles 
flower  into  practice.  Every  truth  revealed  in  Holy 


332  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

Scripture,  has  a  practical  tendency.  The  doctrines  of 
the  Bible  are  not  mere  abstract  dogmas,  to  be  retained, 
in  all  the  clearness  and  coldness  of  moonlight,  in  the 
head,  but  warm,  living,  life-giving,  like  the  grace  of 
God,  which  teaches  us  to  live  godly,  denying  all  worldly 
lusts.  It  is  God's  plan,  in  His  word,  to  teach  us  prin 
ciples — the  system  of  Divine  truth  the  most  suitable 
for  us  to  know — by  examples.  There  are  several  ways 
of  teaching  moral  and  religious  truth,  namely:  The 
dogmatic,  or  scholastic  method;  and  the  scientific,  or 
inductive;  and,  thirdly,  the  illustrative  method,  or 
teaching  by  examples.  If  the  first  chapter  of  the 
Bible  had  begun  with  the  proposition  logically  stated, 
after  the  manner  of  the  schools :  There  is  a  Supreme 
Being,  whose  name  is  God;  and  then,  if  the  proofs 
had  been  arranged  in  orders  and  classes,  we  should 
have  had  the  existence  of  God  stated  and  proved  in  a 
dogmatic  manner.  But  this  is  not  the  method  of  the 
Bible.  It  begins  by  assuming  that  there  is  a  God,  and 
describes  some  of  His  works.  So  far,  however,  as  we 
are  taught,  by  the  sacred  writers,  to  argue  from  effect 
to  cause,  from  the  works  and  revelations  of  God,  that 
there  is  a  Supreme  Being,  just  so  far  we  are  taught,  in 
the  Bible,  to  find  the  existence  of  God  proven  by  sci 
entific  reasoning.  But  it  is  plain,  to  all  who  read  the 
word  of  God,  that  its  manner  of  teaching  truth  is  chiefly 
by  examples.  Thg  historical  and  inductive  method  of 
unfolding  Divine  truth,  is  the  one  chiefly  pursued  by 
the  sacred  writers,  and,  to  most  minds,  this  is  the  most 
interesting  and  convincing  method  that  can  be  pursued. 
The  scholar  learns  to  write  more  easily  by  seeing  bis 
master  write,  and  then  by  copying  after  him,  than  by 


ACTIONS    OUR   TEACHERS.  333 

hearing  him  read  a  lecture  on  chirography.  Alexander 
the  Great  was  much  more  inspired  by  studying  the  his 
tory  of  the  exploits  of  Achilles  and  Cyrus  the  Great^ 
than  he  was  by  the  lectures  of  Aristotle  on  courage  and 
heroism.  Seneca  says,  the  crowd  of  philosophers  which 
followed  Socrates,  learned  more  of  their  ethics  from  his 
manners  than  from  his  discourses.  And  of  Origen,  it 
is  said  that,  though  he  was  one  of  the  most  learned 
men,  and  most  voluminous  writers  of  his  or  of  any  age, 
that  he  recommended  religion  more  by  his  example  than 
by  all  that  he  wrote.  And  this  peculiarity  of  the  hu 
man  mind  is  duly  provided  for  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures. 
It  is  God's  plan,  in  His  holy  word,  to  make  His  good 
ness,  as  it  were,  to  pass  before  us  in  living  forms,  and 
then  to  have  the  record  made  and  preserved  for  our 
instruction,  warning  and  comfort.  If  it  is  faith  that 
we  are  to  be  taught,  then  we  have  the  lives  of  Abra 
ham  and  Noah,  and  a  host  of  worthies ;  and  so,  for 
meekness,  Moses;  and  for  patience,  Job;  and  for  zeal, 
Peter  and  Paul.  There  are  illustrious  examples  in  the 
Scriptures  of  every  Christian  virtue,  and,  in  the  Son 
of  God,  we  have  an  example  of  perfect  goodness.  Nor 
is  there  any  treatise  on  sin,  that  shows  its  odiousness 
so  clearly,  as  the  expulsion  from  the  garden,  the  drown 
ing  of  the  old  world,  the  overthrow  of  the  cities  of  the 
plain,  and  the  history  of  the  Israelites,  and  the  suffer 
ings  and  "  bloody  passion "  of  our  Lord,  when  He 
made  His  soul  an  offering  for  sin.  It  is  thus  that  infi 
nite  wisdom  has  seen  fit  to  teach  us,  namely,  that  truth 
and  error,  sin  and  holiness,  should  be  lived  out,  and 
then  the  history  written  and  preserved  for  us.  This 
plan  has  been  followed  in  our  sacred  writings,  both  as 


334  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

to  nations  and  as  to  individuals,  and  it  is  certainly  not 
without  significance.  It  is,  no  doubt,  true  that  his 
toric  preaching,  or  the  communicating  of  religious 
truth  by  parables  and  narratives,  was  eminently  fitted 
to  rude  or  half-civilized  nations ;  but  it  is  equally  true, 
that  the  most  refined  Greeks  and  Romans,  as  well  as 
the  most  polished  nations  of  the  East,  have  been 
greatly  delighted  with  precisely  the  same  method 
of  entertainment  and  instruction.  And,  I  fancy,  it 
were  difficult  now  to  find  a  man  too  highly  educated, 
east  or  west,  to  relish  a  good  parable,  or  a  great  truth, 
exhibited  in  its  strength  and  beauty,  in  a  living  char 
acter.  If  history,  and  fable,  and  parable,  are  suited, 
in  a  peculiar  manner,  for  the  instruction  of  children, 
and  the  uneducated  classes,  it  is  no  less  true  that  they 
are  also  the  most  interesting  and  convincing  methods 
of  presenting  truth  to  the  aged  and  most  cultivated 
intellects.  Even  philosophers  prefer  to  have  religious 
truth  brought  home  to  them  in  a  simple  garb.  They 
desire  consolation  for  grief,  not  on  stilts,  nor  in  abstract 
and  stately  phrases,  but  in  a  simple  style.  "  When 
the  great "  and  learned  Bengel  was  ill,  he  sent  for  one 
of  the  students  of  his  University,  to  impart  to  him  some 
word  of  consolation.  The  youth  replied,  "  Sir,  I  am  but 
a  pupil,  a  mere  learner,  I  don't  know  what  to  say  to  a 
teacher  like  you/'  "  What ! "  said  Bengel,  " a  Divinity 
student,  and  not  able  to  give  a  word  of  Scriptural  com 
fort  ! "  The  student,  abashed,  contrived  to  utter  the 
text:  "The  blood  of  Christ,  the  Son  of  God,  cleanseth 
us  from  all  sin."  "  That  is  the  very  word  I  want,"  said 
Bengel,  "it  is  quite  enough ;"  and  taking  him  affec 
tionately  by  the  hand,  dismissed  him. 


TRUE   LOOKING-GLASSES.  335 

Grief,  whether  in  the  palace  or  in  the  cottage — 
whether  in  the  university  or  the  log-cabin,  is  always 
simple.  A  great  man,  bowed  down  under  affliction, 
has  no  time,  nor  disposition,  for  learned  investigations. 
He  wants  something  to  lean  upon.  His  own  powers  of 
body  and  mind  are  relaxed ;  he  wants  comfort  with 
out  toil.  His  own  spirit  is  fainting;  he  wants  relief, 
not  learned  abstractions ;  and  where  can  he  find  com 
fort  so  easily,  and  with  so  direct  an  application,  as 
in  the  looking-glass  of  reliable  history  ?  He  may  there 
find  an  example  similar,  or  so  nearly  like  his  own  case, 
that  he  has  only  to  change  the  name,  and  it  is  himself. 

We  have  found  that  the  Persians  were  remarkable 
for  their  chronicles,  and  that  it  was  fortunate  for  Mor- 
decai,  and  the  Jews,  that  they  were ;  and,  it  is  also  for 
tunate  for  us,  that  we  have  so  many  documents  that 
prove  the  truth  of  our  sacred  narratives.  Even  the 
Tareeklis  of  Persia,  which  are  very  numerous,  and  of 
great  importance  to  this  day,  are  full  of  illustrations  of, 
and  allusions  to  such  facts,  customs  and  past  events, 
as  throw  light  upon  the  Hebrew  chronicles,  as  far  as 
they  are  connected  with  the  history  of  Persia.  The 
Chaldee  Targum  is  extravagant  in  praising  Mordecai. 
It  says  :  "-All  the  kings  of  the  earth  feared  and  trem 
bled  before  him  :  he  was  as  resplendent  as  the  evening 
star  among  the  stars;  and  was  as  bright  as  Aurora 
beaming  forth  in  the  morning;  and  he  was  chief  of  the 
Jews."  And  our  text  says  (Esth.  ix :  4,)  that  "  Mor 
decai  was  great  in  the  king's  house,  and  his  fame  went 
out  throughout  all  the  provinces ;  for  this  man,  Mor 
decai,  waxed  greater  and  greater."  Read  also,  the 
tenth  chapter  of  Esther. 


336  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

The  great  king,  Ahasuerus,  laid  a  tribute  upon  the 
land ;  that  is,  upon  the  one  hundred  and  twenty-seven 
provinces;  and  upon  the  isles  of  the  sea,  probably  ''the 
isles  of  Greece,"  .which  were  conquered  by  Darius  Hys- 
taspes.  And  Mordecai  was  next  unto  the  king — was 
his  prime  minister,  and,  under  the  king,  governor  of 
his  whole  empire.  And  he  was  exalted  to  be  a  blessing 
to  his  people.  It  was  his  study  to  promote  their  pros 
perity :  seeking  the  wealth  of  his  people,  and  speaking 
peace  to  all  his  seed,  and  he  ivas  accepted  of  his  breth 
ren.  This  is  a  great  eulogy.  It  means,  that  he  sought 
to  advance  his  brethren  in  wealth,  he  settled  their  dis 
putes,  causing  them  to  live,  as  far  as  possible,  in  peace 
with  their  Persian  neighbors,  and  among  themselves ; 
and  he  was  accepted  of  his  brethren.  The  basis  of 
their  prosperity  was  peace,  and  they  had  confidence  in 
their  government;  it  was  likely,  therefore,  that  their 
well-doing  would  continue  a  long  time. 

If  Ahasuerus,  Esther  and  Mordecai  have  not  died, 
they  must  be  somewhat  ancient  by  this  time.  But  our 
history  does  not  tell  us  anything  of  their  death.  It  is 
possible,  then,  I  fancy,  notwithstanding  the  skeptic's 
cavilling  at  omissions  in  the  sacred  writings,  for  some 
things  to  be  omitted  that  must  have  happened,  and  are, 
therefore,  in  themselves  true ;  and  possible,  also,  for 
these  same  writings,  in  which  omissions  thus  occur, 
to  be  credible.  Omissions  are  not,  necessarily,  contra 
dictions,  nor  are  they  sufficient  to  destroy  our  faith 
in  the  genuineness  or  authenticity  of  a  record.  We 
have  some  traditions — even  some  monumental  proof 
— that  Esther  and  Mordecai  must  have  died ;  for  we 
have  their  tomb,  although  this  is  not  conclusive,  for 


TOMB    OF    ESTHER.  337 

some  men  have  built  tombs  for  themselves  which  never 
contained  their  ashes.  The  sarcophagus,  or  coffin,  of 
an  Empress  of  Russia,  made  for  herself,  during  her 
lifetime,  and  sent  to  the  Convent  of  Mount  Sinai,  con 
tains,  instead  of  her  Czarinian  ashes,  the  reputed  body 
of  St.  Catharine.  The  politics  of  Asia  and  of  Europe 
would  not  permit  a  Russian  Empress  to  take  her  last 
sleep  at  Mount  Sinai.  The  Pharaoh  who  lies  in  the 
coral  chambers  of  the  Red  Sea,  built  his  pyramid-tomb 
in  his  day,  as  we  found  in  our  lectures  on  Moses,  but 
another  possessed  it.  But  of  Ahasuerus  we  have 
neither  record  of  his  death  nor  monument  to  mark  his 
tomb.  The  grave  of  the  absolute  sovereign  of  one  hun 
dred  and  twenty-seven  provinces,  even  from  India  to 
Ethiopia,  is  totally  unknown.  And  so  is  the  grave  of 
Moses  and  of  John  Calvin.  No  man  knoweth  it  to  this 
day.  The  causes  or  the  reasons  why  we  know  nothing 
of  the  grave  of  Moses,  Ahasuerus  or  Calvin  are,  doubt 
less,  very  different,  but  the  fact  is  the  same. 

It  is  a  simple,  and  not  wholly  a  useless  custom,  to 
plant  flowers  over  the  graves  of  our  beloved  dead,  and 
sometimes  to  gather  a  flower  from  their  grave,  as  a  me 
mento  of  affection.  Now,  we  would  have  our  readers, 
who  have  come  with  us  thus  far,  visit  the  tomb  of  our 
Queen,  and,  while  musing  there,  gather  a  few 'flowers, 
that  we  hope  may  bloom  in  beauty  and  fragrance  many 
days. 

It  is  believed  by  most  travelers  that  the  tomb  of 
Esther  and  Mordecai  exists  to  this  day.  At  least,  a 
tomb  so  called  is  still  shown,  near  the  city  of  Hama- 
dan,  in  Persia,  which  lies  on  the  route  as  one  goes 
from  Bagdad  to  the  Caspian.  The  tomb  is  in  the 
15 


338  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

midst  of  ruins,  believed  to  be  those  of  Ecbatana,  the 
old  Median  capital  of  the  Persian  Empire.  The  present 
city  of  Hamadan  contains  from  30  to  40,000  inhabitants, 
among  whom  are  several  hundred  Israelitish  families. 
The  tomb  is  a  square  building,  with  a  dome,  such  as  is 
common  over  the  tombs  of  holy  persons,  in  Mohamme 
dan  countries.  It  is  regarded,  both  by  Mohammedans 
and  the  Jews  of  Persia,  as  a  place  of  great  sanctity, 
and  pilgrimages  are  still  made  to  it.  It  is  spoken  of  in 
the  days  of  Benjamin  of  Tudela.  And  Sir  Robert  K. 
Porter  made  a  visit  to  it,  and  says  it  is  the  tomb  of  Es 
ther  and  Mordecai,  and  has  been  carefully  preserved 
from  "  the  day  of  the  holy  pairs'  interment."  The 
keeping  up  of  a  pilgrimage  among  the  Jews  to  this 
place,  at  the  same  time  of  year  when  the  feast  of  Puriin 
is  celebrated,  makes  this  monumental  pile  a  kind  of 
eye-witness  of  the  event — "an  evidence  to  the  fact, 
more  convincing,  perhaps,  than  even  written  testimo 
ny."  It  is  true  that  Timour  sacked  the  city  and  the 
tomb  was  destroyed,  but,  soon  afterward,  another  was 
built,  on  the  same  spot,  by  a  Ilabbi,  called  Ismael.  The 
sarcophagi  are  of  dark  wood,  covered  with  Hebrew  let 
ters,  which  is  said  to  have  been  preserved  from  the 
ravages  of  the  Tartars.  It  is  certain  that  the  tomb  is 
now  kept  in  the  highest  state  of  repair,  and  held  in 
the  highest  veneration.  It  is,  also,  an  admitted  tradi 
tion  that  the  Queen  and  Mordecai  were  buried  in  the 
same  tomb.  The  following  translation  of  the  Hebrew 
inscriptions  is  given  by  Sir  John  Malcolm,  and  copied 
by  me  from  the  Gleaner  :  "  At  that  time,  there  was  in 
the  palace  of  Susa,  a  certain  Jew,  of  the  name  of  Mor 
decai  ;  he  was  the  son  of  Jair,  of  Shimei,  who  was  the 


ANCIENT  PALACE  OF  SUSA.         339 

son  of  Kish,  a  Benjamite,  for  Mordecai  the  Jew,  was 
the  second  of  that  name  under  Ahasuerus,  a  man  much 
distinguished  among  the  Jews,  and  enjoying  great  con 
sideration  among  his  own  people,  anxious  for  their  wel 
fare,  and  seeking  to  promote  the  peace  of  all  Asia." 

And  on  this  subject  it  is  not  irrelevant  to  introduce 
the  following  facts  from  the  commissioners,  on  the  part 
of  England,  Russia  and  Persia,  who  have  been  engaged 
in  establishing  the  boundary  line  between  Persia  and 
Turkey.  "In  the  prosecution  of  this  work,  the  com 
missioners  have  come  upon  the  remains  of  the  ancient 
palace  of  Shushan,  mentioned  in  the  sacred  books  of 
Esther  and  Daniel,  together  with  the  tomb  of  Daniel  the 
prophet.  The  locality  answers  to  the  received  tradition 
of  its  position,  and  the  internal  evidence,  arising  from 
its  correspondence  with  the  description  of  the  palace 
recorded  in  the  sacred  history,  amounts  almost  to  a 
demonstration,"  Col.  Williams,  of  the  British  army, 
who  is  one  of  this  commission  says,  that  the  pavement 
of  the  king's  palace  and  court,  as  described  in  Esther, 
"  of  red,  and  blue  and  white  and  black  marble,"  still 
exists  in  exact  correspondence  to  the  description  given 
in  the  sacred  history.  And  in  the  marble  columns, 
dilapidated  ruins,  the  sculpture,  and  the  remaining 
marks  of  greatness  and  glory  that  are  scattered  around, 
the  commissioners  read  the  exact  truth  of  the  record 
made  by  the  sacred  penman."  "  Not  far  from  the  pal 
ace  stands  a  tomb  ;  on  it  is  sculptured  the  figure  of  a 
man  bound  hand  and  foot,  with  a  huge  lion  in  the  act 
of  springing  upon  him  to  devour  him.  No  history 
could  speak  more  graphically  the  story  of  Daniel  in  the 
lions'  den.  The  Persian  arrow-heads  are  found  upon 


340  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

the  palace  and  the  tomb.  Glass  bottles,  elegant  as 
'  those  placed  upon  the  toilet-tables  of  the  ladies  of  our 
day,  have  been  discovered,  with  other  indications  of  art 
and  refinement,  which  bear  out  the  statements  of  the 
Bible/'  *  It  is  generally  believed  that  it  was  owing  to 
the  influence  of  Daniel,  Esther  and  Mordecai,  that  the 
Persian  rulers  of  this  period  were  so  favorably  disposed 
toward  the  Jews.  It  is  at  least  certain,  that  not  only 
Cyrus,  but  his  successors,  granted  great  favors  to  the 
Jews,  and  materially  aided  in  rebuilding  the  Temple. 
\  After  the  downfall  and  death  of  Hainan,  it  is  easy  to 
see  that  the  influence  of  Esther  would  be  very  great. 
It  is  not  at  all  surprising  that  the  king  construed  Ha 
inan's  attempt  to  destroy  all  the  Jews  as  an  indirect  way 
to  get  to  the  throne,  and  that,  therefore,  he  considered 
the  queen  as  having  saved  his  life  at  this  time,  as  Mor 
decai  had  done  once  before ;  and  that  on  this  account, 
as  well  as  his  love  for  her,  there  was  nothing  he  was  not 
willing  to  do  for  her  and  him.  It  is  not  then  incredi 
ble  that  he  should  grant  her  request,  and  allow  his  pal 
ace  to  flow  with  the  blood  of  eight  hundred  of  Hainan's 
friends  and  fellow  conspirators,  and  that  Haman's  ten 
sons  were  hanged  as  well  as  killed,  and  that  Mordecai 
should  be  promoted  to  the  honors  and  place  from  which 
Haman  had  been  removed.  Nor  does  it  appear  that 
the  king's  favor  was  misplaced,  or  his  confidence  be 
trayed.  Mordecai  was  faithful  and  worthy  of  the 
esteem  not  only  of  his  brethren,  but  of  his  sovereign 
also.  Nor  did  the  queen  betray  any  unworthiness  of 


*  This  extract  of  the  report  of  the  Commissioners  is  taken  from  the  Boston 
Chronicle.  And  it  is  not  the  statement  of  ';  a  fanatical,  half-educated  mis 
sionary,"  but  of  a  scientific  corps  of  the  most  enlightened  nations  of  the 
world. 


JEWS    WIDELY    SCATTERED.  341 

her  great  influence.  Though  exalted  to  the  highest 
station  a  woman  could  then  enjoy,  and  possessed  of  great 
beauty,  she  was  neither  vain  nor  haughty,  nor  did  she 
forget  her  religion.  "  The  same  gentle,  pure,  and  noble 
creature  when  queen,  as  when  living  in  the  lowly  habi 
tation  of  her  uncle — generous,  disinterested,  and  ready 
to  die  for  others,  she  is  one  of  the  loveliest  characters 
furnished  in  the  annals  of  history." 

1.  The  wide  dispersion  of  the  Jews  in  the  time  of 
queen  Esther,  though  somewhat  overlooked,  is  histori 
cally  correct;  and  it  is  equally  true  that  their  tenacity  L 
of  character  was  not  less  remarkable  then  than  at  the 
present  day.  It  seems  to  be  generally  supposed  that 
the  wide-spreading  of  the  Hebrews  over  the  face  of  the 
earth  begun  at  the  destruction  of  the  holy  city  by  the 
Romans.  This  is  indeed  a  marked  epoch  in  their  dis 
persion,  but  numerous  Jewish  colonies  are  known  to 
have  been  settled  in  various  and  remote  parts  of  the 
globe  before  the  coming  of  Christ.  Only  a  fragment 
returned  from  Babylon  and  aided  in  the  rebuilding  of 
the  Temple.  Jews  are  found  in  our  day  in  the  heart, 
of  Africa,  in  China  and  India,  whose  traditions  are  quite 
clear  as  far  back  as  king  Solomon.  A  writer  in  the 
"  Revue  des  Deux  Mondes,"  advances  the  opinion  that 
the  Jews  in  China  are  the  descendants  of  those  who 
settled  there  during  the  Assyrian  captivity  of  the  tea 
tribes.  At  least  enough  is  known  from  authentic  docu-  ^ 
ments  to  prove  the  credibility  of  the  dispersion  of  the 
Jews  throughout  the  Persian  empire,  five  hundred  years 
before  the  Christian  era  ;  and  enough  is  known  to  show 
that  to  this  day,  and  from  a  very  early  period  of  their 
national  history,  the  Israelites  are  distinguished  for  two 
15* 


342  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

things,  which  seem  almost  paradoxical  or  antagonistic, 
namely :  a  wide  spread  dispersion,  and  yet  a  most  re 
markably  distinct  tenacity  of  character.  There  may  be 
some  resemblance  to  them  in  this  last  particular,  though 
I  think  a  minute  examination  of  the  point,  would  show 
but  a  very  faint  resemblance  to  the  Jews,  among  some 
of  the  Hindoo  or  eastern  races ;  and  as  to  their  disper 
sion,  the  Israelites  are  certainly  without  any  parallel. 
They  are  now,  as  Hainan  said  to  the  king  of  Persia,  a 
certain  people  scattered  abroad  and  dispersed  amony 
tlie people  ;  and  their  laws  are  diverse  from  all  people. 
They  are  scattered  among  all  nations,  live  under  all 
sorts  of  governments,  speak  almost  all  known  tongues, 
pursue  many  avocations,  and  form  parts  of  most  nation 
alities,  and  yet  never  coalesce  \  nor  have  they  a  home 
as  a  nation  anywhere  on  earth.  They  present  the  his- 
torical  phenomena  of  a  nationality  that  has  resisted  all 
change  from  time  and  contact  with  all  other  nations  for 
at  least  three  thousand  years,  and  yet  they  are  not  a  na 
tion  at  all.  It  is  only  in  the  light  of  their  own  peculiar 
history,  and  of  their  own  holy  prophets,  that  a  rational 
solution  can  be  given  of  this  phenomenon,  and  the  so 
lution  when  given,  is  to  our  mind,  a  perfect  demonstra 
tion  of  the  truth  of  the  Scriptures  of  God,  and  of  the 
Christian  religion.  This  then  is  a  flower  we  may  gather 
at  the  tomb  of  Esther  and  Mordecai. 

Again  :  2.  Sow  perishable  is  all  earthly  grandeur  ! 
A  winding  sheet,  said  Saladin,  as  he  looked  upon  his 
hosts  from  his  pyramid  of  human  skulls,  is  all  that  will 
soon  remain  of  me !  And  how  much  more  is  remain 
ing  of  the  greatness  and  glory  of  Xerxes  and  Alexan- 


XERXES'  NAME  LOST.  343 

der,  than  the  name;  and,  of  Xerxes,  even  his  own 
empire  has  not  preserved  his  name;  at  least,  not  the 
name  by  which  he  is  known  to  mankind.  Persia  was 
justly  distinguished  for  her  public  works,  cities,  towns, 
roads,  bridges  and  posts;  and  her  Greek  and  Homan 
conquerors  added  castles,  and  acqueducts,  and  cities, 
and  extended  her  roads,  and  increased  her  bridges;  but 
still  the  remains  of  ancient  Persian  grandeur,  and 
power,  are  very  insignificant.  The  name  Xerxes  is  not 
yet  discovered  in  the  chronicles  of  his  own  vast  empire; 
nor  is  there  any  agreement,  among  historians,  as  to  sev 
eral  of  the  chief  events  of  the  life  of  Cyrus  the  Great. 
Xenophon  closes  the  exploits  of  Cyrus,  with  his  con 
quest  of  Egypt,  and  says  he  spent  the  last  seven  years 
of  his  life  in  perfect  peace,  and,  as  the  Persian  chroni 
clers  say,  in  devoting  his  days  to  God;  for  that  he  said 
he  had  spent  a  life  long  enough  for  his  own  glory.  Xe 
nophon  says  he  died  in  his  bed.  Herodotus  says  he 
perished,  and  a  great  part  of  his  army,  in  a  war  against 
the  Scythians,  which  is  the  generally  received  account. 
The  poets,  Ferdusi  and  Mirkhond,  say,  however,  that 
Cyrus,  with  a  numl  or  of  tli  ^  most  remarkable  warriors 
of  Persia,  disappeared  together,  or  at  the  same  time, 
from  a  favorite  spot  selected  by  him  for  retirement; 
and  will  have  us  to  believe  they  were  carried  up  to 
heaven  in  a  tempest,  or  whirlwind.  His  tomb  is  said 
to  be  at  Pasagarda.  Pliny,  Arrian  and  Strabo,  have 
described  it.  Alexander  offered  funeral  honors  to  the 
shades  of  Cyrus,  at  his  tomb,  and  then  broke  it  open 
in  hopes  of  finding  treasures  there ;  but  in  this  he  was 
disappointed,  for  all  he  found  was  a  rotten  shield,  two 
Scythian  bows,  c.nd  a  Persian  scimitar. 


344  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

Now,  the  omissions,  discrepancies,  and  contradictions 
we  thus  find  in  the  history  of  such  renowned  men  as 
Xerxes,  Cyrus  arid  Alexander,  are  the  more  remarka 
ble,  when  we  remember  how  careful  they  were  in  taking 
every  precaution  to  have  their  deeds  embalmed  for  all 
coming  ages.  The  Persians  were  extremely  ambitious 
and  vain.  They  seem  to  have  taken  more  pains  than 
any  other  people,  except  it  be  the  Hebrews,  to  preserve 
their  early  history,  and  yet,  beyond  Cyrus,  we  have 
scarcely  a  reliable  syllable  of  their  history — almost  left 
without  any  means  of  fixing  their  chronology;  and  for 
the  life  of  Cyrus,  and  anything  like  a  full  or  satisfac 
tory  history  of  some  of  their  greatest  men,  we  are 
indebted  to  the  writers  of  contemporary  nations.  A 
few  fragments  only  remain  of  their  original  documen 
tary  history.  But,  notwithstanding  all  this,  what  man 
is  there,  possessed  of  common  sense,  that  doubts  the 
personal  existence,  and  the  reality,  substantially,  of  the 
deeds  of  Xerxes,  or  of  Cyrus,  because  the  name  of  the 
one  is  not  found  in  the  history  of  his  own  empire,  as 
far  as  we  are  yet  informed,  and  because  historians  are 
not  yet  agreed  as  to  where,  when,  or  how,  the  other 
died.  It  must  certainly  be  admitted  that  men,  known 
to  us  by  the  names  Xerxes  and  Cyrus,  did  once  live, 
and  that  they  performed  deeds  that  still  live  in  history, 
and  that  they  are  both  dead.  Neither  omissions,  dis 
crepancies,  nor  contraditions,  in  their  memoirs,  can 
destroy  our  belief  in  them  as  historic  personages. 
They  are  not  myths,  nor  are  their  histories  fables. 
What  then,  if  it  be  true  that  there  are  omissions,  and 
apparent  contradictions,  in  the  history  of  Bible  heroes? 
If  we  receive  the  history  of  Persian  kings,  much  more 


THE    BIBLE    TO    BE    TRUSTED.  345 

may  we  rely  upon  the  lives  of  Hebrew  prophets  and 
kings.  And  surely  we  may  be  allowed  to  hold  to  the 
WORD  OF  GOD  until  it  fails  us,  or  until  we  have  a 
better  book  furnished  us.  But  it  never  fails.  The 
law  of  the  Lord  is  perfect,  converting  the  soul.  And 
if  all  earthly  honors  and  glory  are  so  fleeting,  let  us 
lay  up  treasures  in  the  skies,  in  a  kingdom  that  passeth 
not  away. 

3.  Another  flower  then,  that  we  would  gather  from 
the  tomb  of  Esther  and  Mordecai,  is,  that  our  youug 
readers  should  learn  to  trust  in  the  truthfulness  of  the 
Bible.  It  is  wonderful  that,  after  the  lapse  of  two 
thousand  five  hundred  years,  the  records  of  Esther  and 
Daniel  should  be  thus  verified  by  the  scientific  explo 
rations  and  researches  of  our  day,  and  that  too  by  races 
and  men  from  countries  unknown  in  their  times. 
Truly  it  is  a  vain  thing  for  the  heathen  to  set  them 
selves  against  the  Lord,  or  for  them  to  rage  against 
His  annointed.  His  word  is  true,  and  must  prevail. 
Heaven  and  earth  may  pass  away,  but  God's  word 
is  a  tried  word,  that  endureth  forever.  It  has  been 
finely  said,  by  Madame  Dacier,  in  her  notes  upon  the 
Iliad,  that  Homer  appears  greater  by  the  criticisms  that 
have  been  put  forth  upon  him,  from  age  to  age,  by  the 
great  minds  of  the  world,  than  by  the  praises  which 
have  been  bestowed  upon  him.  Now  if  this  rule  be 
applied  to  the  Bible,  it  would  be  impossible  to  fix  the 
limits  of  the  highth  of  the  pyramid  of  its  glory.  It 
has  been  censured  more  than  any  other  book.  It  has 
been  burned  oftener  than  any  other  book.  It  has  pro 
voked  the  opposition  of  hell,  and  of  wicked  men,  more 


346  THE     HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

than  all  other  books.  It  has  been  opposed  more  uni 
formly,  and  more  universally  by  the  vicious  and  the 
ungodly,  than  any  other,  or  than  all  other  books;  and 
yet  no  weapon  that  has  ever  been  tried  against  it  has 
prevailed.  It  still  stands,  like  a  great  light-house,  in 
the  midst  of  the  surging  waves  that  dash  around  it 
and  roll  away,  and  leave  it  still  perfect,  shining  over 
the  darkness,  and  guiding  the  voyager  to  the  haven  of 
eternal  rest. 

"  Mutter  o'er  your  words  of  Power  ! 
Ye  can  shatter  the  dwellings  of  man  ; 
Ye  can  open  the  womb  of  the  rock  ; 
Ye  can  shake  the  foundations  of  earth, 

But  not  the  WORD  OP  GOD  : 
But  not  one  letter  can  ye  change 
Of  what  His  Will  hath  written  !" 

4.  The  history  of  Esther  teaches  us  to  trust  our  or 
phans  to  God.  He  who  cares  for  the  flowers  of  the 
wilderness,  and  feeds  the  birds  of  the  air,  and  the 
mosses  of  the  sea — will  He  not  provide  for  his  own 
children  ?  We  are  of  more  value  than  many  sparrows. 
The  very  hairs  of  our  heads  He  numbers.  It  was  God's 
plan,  in  furnishing  a  queen  for  the  Persian  throne 
that  none  should  please  the  king  but  the  orphan  He 
brew  maid.  And  still  we  see  it  is  His  plan  often  to 
employ  orphans  as  agents  in  great  works.  How  many 
daughters  of  widows  have  been  charmingly  beautiful, 
and  have  become  mothers  in  Israel  ?  And  how  many 
widows'  sous  have  risen  to  honor ;  and  how  many  or 
phans  have  become  eminently  pious,  and  have  been 
benefactors  to  the  world  ?  So  remarkable  is  the  good 
ness  of  God  toward  the  fatherless,  that  it  is  an  oriental 


GOD  CARES  FOR  ORPHANS.          347 

saying  that  "  God  takes  care  of  orphans  and  fools."  And 
we  remember  how  our  Lord  had  compassion  on  the 
ruler  of  the  synagogue,  and  when  He  had  raised  his 
daughter,  twelve  years  of  age,  from  the  dead,  that  He 
gave  her  to  her  parents,  commanding  them  to  give  her 
something  to  eat ;  and  how  he  restored  Lazarus  to  the 
society  of  his  sisters ;  and  how,  when  he  had  raised  the 
son  of  the  widow  of  Nain  from  the  dead,  that  He  gave 
him  to  his  mother.  Now  these  instances  show  that  our 
Lord  exercised  the  tenderest  and  most  considerate  com 
passion  toward  the  afflicted  and  bereaved,  and  we  know 
that  His  tenderness  is  as  great  now  as  it  was  in  the  days 
of  His  humiliation.  In  making  our  children  fatherless, 
therefore,  we  are  not  to  conclude  that  God  shuts  them 
out  from  His  compassion.  On  the  contrary,  one  of  the  di 
vine  titles  is,  "The  Fatherof  the  fatherless,  anda  Judge 
of  the  widows  is  God  in  His  holy  habitation."  "  Leave 
thy  fatherless  children;  I  will  preserve  them  alive; 
and  let  thy  widows  trust  in  me."  Ps.  Ixviii :  5  ;  Jer.  x  : 
4;  ix:  11.  If,  then,  Hadassah  is  left  a  little  orphan, 
without  father  or  mother,  and  in  a  strange  land  and  a 
captive,  still  the  God  of  her  fathers  will  take  care  of 
her,  and  prepare  her  for  the  highest  position  that  a 
woman  could  occupy.  God  was  more  to  her  than  her 
parents  could  have  been.  The  Almighty  became  her 
guardian,  and  had  her  carefully  brought  up.  She  was 
beautiful  in  person,  but  her  wisdom  and  grace  were  her 
chief  attractions — still  her  beauty  was  a  blessing  to  her. 
It  is  an  advantage  even  to  a  diamond  to  have  it  well  set. 
Beauty  and  accomplishments  are  to  be  used  as  God's 
gifts,  and  not  abused.  If,  then,  we  are  deprived  of  our 
earthly  parents,  let  us  put  our  trust  in  our  Heavenly 


348  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

Father,  whose  eye  is  always  upon  us,  and  whose 
ear  is  ever  open  to  our  cry,  and  whose  arm  can 
reach  and  save  us  to  the  ends  of  the  earth.  What, 
then,  if  you  are  written  orphan — if  no  noble-hearted 
father  is  left  to  smooth  down  your  flaxen  locks  as  his 
soul  rises  up  in  fervent  benedictions  on  your  head — 
what  though  you  are  without  a  mother's  sleepless  care, 
and  there  is  no  longer  a  bosom  on  which  your  aching 
head  can  lean  with  perfect  confidence — no  heart  into 
which  you  can  any  longer  pour  your  many  grievances 
and  the  sad  tale  of  all  your  youthful  sorrows — yet  you 
have  a  Father  in  heaven,  whose  heart  is  infinitely  more 
kind  than  that  of  any  earthly  parent.  Trust  in  Him. 
He  ever  liveth  to  bless.  He  will  never  disappoint  you 
nor  forsake  you.  And,  my  young  readers,  if  God  has 
raised  you  up  friends  away  from  home — tender  and 
faithful  guardians  of  your  character  and  happiness,  as 
He  did  for  Esther  in  the  land  of  her  people's  captivity, 
then  be  careful  to  own  God's  goodness.  Such  friends 
are  sent  of  God.  Learn,  also,  to  be  merciful  as  God  is 
merciful.  Do  good  to  all  men  •  but  especially  to 
widows  and  orphans  in  their  affliction.  There  is  no 
species  of  benevolence  that  repays  with  so  much  inter 
est  to  the  benefit  of  mankind  as  the  care  and  education 
of  orphans.  God  seems  to  take  peculiar  pleasure  in 
making  orphans  a  blessing  to  mankind,  as  an  encour 
agement  to  us  to  show  them  kindness,  and  to  commit 
our  children,  as  orphans,  to  Him,  if  He  sees  best  to 
take  us  from  them. 

5.  And  this  suggests  another  thought,  namely,  that 
it  is  by  doing  good  that  we  build  the  most  enduring 
monuments  in  the  world.  The  tomb  of  Moses,  says 


GOOD    WORKS   IMMORTAL.  349 

some  one,  is  not  known  to  this  day,  but  travelers  and  pil 
grims,  from  every  land  and  for  many  generations, 
have  thanked  God  for  water,  as  they  have  quenched 
their  thirst  at  Jacob's  Well.  Nor  is  it  without  sig 
nificance  that  the  splendid  pile  of  hewn  stone  and 
marble,  and  gold  and  silk,  ivory  and  cedar,  erected 
by  king  Solomon,  for  the  service  of  Jehovah,  was 
burnt,  and  has,  long  since,  been  in  utter,  undistin- 
guishable  ruins,  while  his  reservoirs  and  fountains 
and  aqueducts  are  almost  as  perfect  as  they  ever 
were.  The  golden  house  of  Nero  is  a  mass  of  ruins, 
and  cabbage  and  garlic  and  onions  are  growing  over 
the  ruins  of  the  palace  of  the  Caesars,  but  the  aqueduct 
of  Claudius  still  pours  its  limpid  streams  into  the  eter 
nal  city.  The  fountains  of  Tadmor  in  the  wilderness 
still  sparkle  as  freshly  as  when  Zenobia  was  queen,  but 
her  Palace  and  the  Temple  of  the  Sun  have  fallen,  and 
are  known  only  in  story  and  by  a  mound  of  rubbish.  The 
marble  floors  and  columns  of  Shushan  and  Persepolis 
are  known  as  ruins,  the  dwelling-places  of  unclean 
beasts  and  birds  ;  but  the  lessons  of  virtue  and  holiness, 
which  Mordecai  taught  the  orphan  Jewess,  have  never 
lost  their  power.  The  harvest  of  benevolent  doing  is 
perpetual.  It  is  not  only  a  personal  and  immediate 
blessing  to  the  doer  himself,  but  every  good  deed  is 
immortal.  A  good  deed  is  so  great  a  blessing  that  it  is 
to  be  sought  after  and  performed,  because  of  the  pre 
sent  happiness  it  bestows  ;  how  much  more,  then,  since 
it  is  to  live  forever  ?  The  example  of  the  patriarchs, 
the  sufferings  of  martyrs  for  truth  and  liberty,  and  the 
principles  enunciated  and  lived  out  by  the  great  and 
good  before  us  cannot  die. 
16 


350  THE    HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

6.  Here  then  is  encouragement  to  teachers,  parents 
and  guardians.  Mordecai  toiling  and  patiently  teach 
ing  Hadassah  her  catechism — does  he  know  what  des 
tiny  awaits  her  ?  By  no  means.  He  is  only  doing  his 
present  duty,  hoping  for  the  divine  blessing.  While 
he  is  diligently  laboring  and  praying  that  he  may  do 
his  whole  duty  to  his  cousin-ward,  he  has  no  revelation 
telling  him  she  shall  become  the  Queen  of  Persia.  No, 
not  a  syllable  like  it.  But  he  toils  on,  trusting  the  God 
of  Jacob  for  the  future.  And  just  so  it  must  be  still. 
The  importance  of  early  education,  it  is  impossible  to 
estimate  too  highly.  The  infant  in  the  nurses'  arms 
has  faculties  which  an  angel  cannot  comprehend,  and 
which  eternity  alone  can  unfold.  That  infant  may 
sway  listening  Senates,  or  thunder  home  truth  from  the 
pulpit  into  the  hearts  of  thousands,  or  wield  the  pen  or 
the  sceptre  that  is  to  govern  millions ;  or  that  little  girl 
may  occupy  a  place  as  wife  or  mother  that  shall  send 
forth  an  influence  ever  widening  and  traveling  onward 
to  the  last  day  of  the  world.  The  workers,  the  think 
ers,  the  orators,  the  writers,  the  statesmen,  the  heroes 
of  the  ages  of  the  future,  are  these  infants  now  carried 
about  by  our  nurses ;  and  as  they  are  educated  so  will 
they  be  a  blessing  or  a  curse.  I  observe  that  many 
writers  and  speakers  often  dwell  on  the  dangers  to  be 
apprehended  to  our  institutions  from  foreigners,  and 
especially  from  the  Jesuits;  now  I  will  tell  you  a 
secret — tell  you  of  a  power  in  our  midst  much  greater 
than  that  of  all  the  followers  of  Loyola  in  the  world. 
I  mean  the  young  women  who  are  our  nurses,  helps  or 
servants.  They  are  chiefly  from  Ireland  and  Germany, 
and  the  most  of  them  are  conscientious  and  honest  Catho- 


THE    NURSE'S    INFLUENCE.  351 

lies,  and  it  is  iny  solemn  conviction  that  there  is  more 
power  in  their  hands  than  in  all  the  Jesuit  schools  in 
America.     I  do  not  mean  that  anything  is  to  be  appre 
hended  under  our  laws,  from  what  they  will  say  or  do 
to  the  children,  or  in  the  families  where  they  live  as 
domestics.     As  a  general  rule,  I  do  not  believe  there  is 
anything  wrong  here ;  but  I  do  mean,  that  the  rhymes 
and  tales  the  nurse  tells  our  little  ones,  are  to  live  for 
ever.     And  I  mean  also  that  these  women  are  to  be  the 
wives  and  mothers  of  thousands  of  citizens,  in  whose 
hands  are  to  rest  the  destinies  of  the  institutions  of  this 
country.     It  is  confessedly  from  them  the  increase  of 
the  power  of  the  Catholic  Church  in  America  is  chiefly 
to  be  expected.     These  women  are   industrious   and 
healthy.    They  generally  make  good,  honest,  hard-work 
ing  economical  wives,  and  it  is  no  uncommon  thing  for 
their  sons  to  be  the  men  of  money  and  influence  in  their 
day;  and  we  need  hardly  say,  that  the  sons  are  defenders 
of  the  faith  of  the  mothers.  It  is  the  mother  that  moulds 
the  man,  the  elector  and  the  statesman.    These  mothers 
have  more  power  over  our  institutions  than  all  the  ar 
mies   of  the    Napoleons    of  Europe   can  ever   wield. 
England's  "  Iron  Duke"  once  said  on  visiting,  in  his  old 
age,  the  place  where  he  was  educated,  "  the  battle  of 
Waterloo  was  fought  in  Eton  School."     He  meant  that 
the  military  discipline  of  thought,  the   manliness  of 
character,  the  knowledge  and  virtue,  that  he  acquired 
in  his  school-boy  days,  enabled  him  to  fight  successfully 
the  battle  of  Waterloo  against  the  conqueror  of  the 
continent.     And  he  was  right.     The  general  makes  the 
soldier,  and  the  boy  is  father  to  the  man-general.     It  is 
so — it  has  always  been  so — and  it  will  continue  to  be 


352  THE   HEBREW- PERSIAN    QUEEN. 

so.  The  mind  of  the  child  is  immortal,  and  yet  it  is 
plastic  in  the  hands  of  the  mother ;  and  truth  taught 
to  the  youthful  mind,  lodged  in  the  infant  soul,  prepares 
it  for  the  bosom  of  God.  And  as  parents  and  teachers, 
and  the  guardians  of  youth — as  members  of  society, 
there  is  no  escape  from  responsibility  as  to  the  proper 
education  of  the  young. 

And  finally,  let  me  while  we  are  yet  musing  over  the 
tomb  of  the  Hebrew  orphan,  whom  God  made  a  queen, 
say  to  all  young  people  :  Confide  in  your  parents. 
Esther  as  Sultana,  obeyed  Mordecai,  as  when  she  was 
brought  up  with  him.  Your  parents'  love  is  sincere. 
No  one  can  love  you  with  an  affection  so  disinterested 
as  your  father  or  mother.  Many  a  daughter  has  dug 
the  grave  of  all  her  earthly  happiness,  by  receiving  the 
addresses  of  a  young  man  contrary  to  the  wish  of  her 
parents.  The  pale  and  melancholy  features,  the  has 
tening  to  the  grave  of  the  broken-hearted,  a  stranger 
and  neglected,  have,  alas  !  too  often  told  the  sad  story 
of  a  lovely  and  confiding  one  that  married  contrary  to 
the  wishes  of  her  parents,  and  exchanged  thereby  sym 
pathizing  friends,  able  and  judicious  counsellors,  and 
kind  and  devoted  nurses  in  sickness,  for  a  selfish,  un 
feeling  companion,  who  sought  only  his  own  vanity  or 
pleasure.  Young  woman,  if  you  have  an  intelligent 
and  godly  father,  never  forget  his  counsels.  He  knows 
the  world ;  he  knows  the  hearts  of  men,  and  his  advice 
is  free  from  selfishness.  Dishonor  not  his  gray  hairs 
by  disobeying  him.  Young  man,  if  you  have  an  intel 
ligent  and  pious  mother  on  earth,  you  yet  have  a  treas 
ure  worth  more  than  all  the  mines  of  the  mountains. 
A  mother's  love,  even  if  all  other  things  seem  lost  to 


A  MOTHER'S  LOVE.  353 

you,  will  follow  you  through  all  the  changings  of  life, 
and  far  beyond  the  portals  of  the  tomb.  Forget  not 
the  law  of  your  mother.  A  mother's  love  ! 


0,  potent  love!  that  throws  its  tendrils  wild 
E'en  round  the  footsteps  of  an  erring  child: 
That  still  sustains  the  mother's  broken  heart, 
And  bids  her  hope  till  life  itself  depart  ; 
Sweet  is  the  bond,  and  dear  the  hallowed  tie, 
Made  perfect  only  in  Eternity." 

Miss  Barnes. 


Thus  nobly  lived  Queen  Esther  and  Prince  Morde- 
cai  }  and  having  served  their  generation  according  to 
the  will  of  G-od,  they  fell  on  sleep,  and,  being  dead,  yet 
live.  Blessed  be  Esther  !  Blessed  be  Mordecai  ! 


YB  71875 


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